Clay Guida is one of the most popular and well-known fighters in the UFC.
While he’s not at the level of UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones, the 32-year-old featherweight competitor has a loyal army of followers and his funky style and wild hair have elevated him to being a solid second-tier star and a main card fixture.
By comparison, Dennis Bermudez is a fighter that probably doesn’t register with anyone outside of the hardcore audience, unless fans of The Ultimate Fighter remember his run to the finals on Season 14.
In a division where challengers are jockeying for position and several fighters are working hard to establish themselves and raise their profile, the Long Island native has been relegated to the background — an afterthought when discussions about future contenders in the featherweight division come up.
But if you strip away their names and view them simply on their track records, a different picture emerges:
Fighter A: 11-8 in UFC, 2-1 at featherweight. Alternated wins and losses over last four.
Fighter B: 6-1 UFC, all at featherweight. Six straight victories.
Viewed simply on their merits, Bermudez (Fighter B) should be the one ranked inside the Top 10, but it is Guida (Fighter A) that sits four spots ahead of “The Menace,” coming in at No. 7 in the latest official UFC Fighter Rankings.
While records alone don’t paint a complete portrait of a fighter, the current positioning of these two combatants, who meet on the main card of this weekend’s UFC event in San Jose, illustrates the troubling disconnect between popularity and performance and why putting greater emphasis on the latter is needed in order to build new stars and establish emerging talents.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: Watch UFC on FOX 12 Saturday on Sportsnet 360 with prelims starting at 6 p.m. EST and the main card at 8 p.m. EST
It’s impossible not to like Guida. He is the fighting embodiment of “The Dude” from The Big Lebowski. He cruises around the country in his RV and bombs around Albuquerque in a red panel van that is all ’70s groove chill.
When he’s walking to the cage, he’s all hyped up and charismatic — the personality and energy levels of a seven-year-old on a steady diet of Pixy Stix and Red Bull. He’s the guy you want to hang out with because something cool is bound to happen one way or another. None of that, however, should have any impact on his positioning in the expanding and increasingly competitive featherweight division.
Sure, being a personality and having a following affords you a push, but at some point, results have to come into play and the reality is that Guida has yet to string together enough quality performances to justify his Top 10 placement in the 145-pound rankings.
Bermudez doesn’t have the same kind of magnetism as the man he’ll face this weekend, but then again, few UFC fighters do. However, what he does have over “The Carpenter” is a superior track record in the division and a significant amount of momentum heading into Saturday’s contest.
Since losing to Diego Brandao in the TUF 14 featherweight finals in 2011, the 27-year-old Bermudez has rattled off six consecutive victories, showcasing powerful wrestling, nasty ground-and-pound and improved striking each time out.
Though there are several up-and-comers looking for a place in the division’s Top 10, few have been able to put together the resume Bermudez has crafted for himself and that should earn him serious consideration and a stronger push from the organization.
In a time where the UFC is in dire need of new stars, it feels at times like the organization is a step or two behind in this process.
Outside of fighters like Conor McGregor, who market themselves tremendously and command superstar status on the way up, the UFC and fight fans often cling to established fighters that have already reached their apex and have started to decline, rather than identifying emerging contenders and getting on board with them early.
Fighters shouldn’t have to put together five- or six-fight winning streaks in order to finally garner a spot on the main card and a bit of camera time on a preview show. Winning three or four consecutive bouts in the UFC is a major accomplishment and merits some attention. Not a main event spot, but at least a place on the main card. Given the number of events taking place, it shouldn’t be too challenging to carve out a main card opening for a fighter on that kind of run.
Fans need to take notice as well. While it’s easy to blame the UFC for failing to promote a fighter like Bermudez prior to this fight or knock them for not building new stars, fight fans need to be willing to look beyond the established names they know to find these “under-the-radar” talents that are putting up results and deserve some attention. Pay attention. Don’t just dismiss a fighter you don’t know. Scan some fighter bios online, read features on new fighters, not just another story on the biggest names in the sport. Learn on your own and be an active consumer. It will make the experience better in the long run.
Saturday could prove to be the point where Bermudez graduates to bigger and better things, but it shouldn’t have taken this long in the first place. Given the run of success he’s on, Bermudez should be someone fans are tuning in to see this weekend, not “that guy that’s fighting Guida.”
There is too much reliance on tenured fighters in building main cards and determining the value and quality of an event. Last week’s fight cards proved that you don’t need established names in order to have an exciting night of fights.
Guida is unquestionably the more popular fighter in this pairing, but Bermudez has been the more successful and has the greater upside.
Come for “The Carpenter” but don’t ignore “The Menace.”