I was furious after watching another horrendous Clay Guida performance last night. Yelling at the screen, frustrated with the judges, wishing Dana would show a little backbone and call Guida out for his pusillanimity.

That idiotic head movement a mile outside the pocket. The flailing punches that make Leonard Garcia look like Sugar Ray Robinson. The useless top position, followed by fending off submissions from the bottom, with the occasional "shoulder strike" from the guard. Guida fought a pathetic, horrible fight. The one consolation, other than the rest of a very fine card, was coming home to read the BE threads where so many shared the same thoughts.

But this got me to thinking. How did Guida turn into the soul sucking, anti-fun monster he is today? We can't necessarily blame Greg Jackson, because he has many exciting fighters in his stable, who don't resort to cynical point fighting. The fact is, Clay Guida is not a talented fighter. He can't strike. He has terrible submissions. He advertises his guard passes like a used car salesman with a bullhorn and a billboard. The one thing he can do somewhat decently is get a takedown and keep the person down (by taking absolutely no risks with GNP or submissions).

Guida seems to have convinced himself (possibly with Greg Jackson's assistance) that he's a title contender. He's taken the opposite route to his career than Chris Lytle, who smartly realized he wasn't a contender, but also recognized that the UFC always has a need for mid-card, high action guys, and they often take home the bonuses. So, rather than try to round out his skill set and become a marginally more appealing fighter, Guida cynically takes the only route he has to victory and just lays on guys for as long as possible (and failing that, he just flat out runs away). I suppose it's not fair for me to blame him as a person for this. But it doesn't mean I need to like it.