Jason Guida is, of course, the brother of UFC fighter and SAVSCI favorite Clay Guida. Funny thing is that he looks just like his brother only he’s as bald as a cue ball unlike his shaggy haired sibling. Jason a little stockier than Clay, who is in his brother’s corner tonight. Clay giving his brother hugs and slaps before he enters the cage–”The Carpenter” is such a cool dude and a monstrous fighter. Mamed is originally from Chechnia but now trains out of Poland–he mentions in his prefight profile that its his first time fighting in a cage. Ranallo gives us some more backstory, telling us that Mamed fled the war in Chechnia in search of a better life in Poland. Hard to argue with that. MMA is apparently blowing up in Poland, not surprising since they’ve always had a vibrant boxing scene.

ROUND ONE:

Guida with a big punch and then bulls Mamed to the fence. Mamed out of nowhere with a rolling kneebar. Guida blocks it now tries for a heel hook, Guida responds with a heel hook of his own. Mamed now working in Guida’s guard but Jason reverses it and is now in Mamed’s guard. Guida trying to pass guard but Mamed using a lot of elbows from the bottom. Mamed working for an arm bar now but Guida blocks it. Guida may have a cut on the top of his head, possibly from an upkick or one of those elbows from the bottom. Hard to see the position or severity of the cut so far–Mamed drops an elbow on Jason’s cut which appears to be near the crown of his noggin. Interesting round so far–Guida has controlled the tempo and tone of the fight, but Mamed has done the most damage. Guida into half guard with a half minute remaining in the round. Mamed doing a nice job tying up Guida on the ground and minimizing damage without expending much energy. Round ends in this position–tough one to score as noted above. We’ll go with Mamed 10-9 though you could make a case for an even round or a Guida round….

ROUND TWO:

Fight continues as Guida’s cut doesn’t look too bad. Guida looking to trade strikes and that might not be the best idea against the unorthodox and effective Polish striker. Spinning heel kick by Mamed just misses–nice combination of punches as well. Not sure why Guida wants to fight this style fight as he gets backed up by another nice combination of punches. His corner yelling at him to get the takedown, and he pulls guard and Mamed is doing a nice job with the ground and pound landing some big punches. Jason appears to be running out of gas–ironic, since his brother Clay is pretty much impossible to tire out. Mamed starting to go to work now on Guida landing a variety of big punches–Jason tries for the takedown but Mamed clocks him with a couple of big strikes on the ground. Now Mamed starts to land a series of elbows to the head–borderline illegal, but reminisecent of Bryan Danielson’s “MMA elbows” finisher. Jason loses his mouthpiece and now they can’t find it. Fans boo as the ref unleashes a tirade of Dana White style “f-bombs” as he searches for the mouthpeice. Jason being offered a substitute mouthpiece and doesn’t want it. Finally they find the mouthpiece and we’re finally back to action. A minute left in round two after a couple minute rest for the fighters. Pace of the fight has slowed, but Mamed lands another nice combination and may have hurt his right hand–now he opens a big combination of punches that Guida eats all of them before the ref waves it off. Jason pushes the ref after the stoppage, which ain’t exactly the smartest thing to do–he’s had something of a meltdown in round two. Impressive showing by the Polish fighter, who has a insane array of strikes and is a solid groundfighter as well. Definitely a fighter to watch…

MAMED KHALIDOV WINS BY TKO

Have to feel bad for Guida, but you can see what his problems are–Clay is one of the classiest fighters in the sport, but Jason is a bit of a hothead and storms out of the cage without congratulating his opponent. And, for that matter, Clay is one of the best conditioned fighters in MMA and conditioning is essential when you’re going to rely on your wrestling. Ranallo talks about how much he likes Jason Guida as a person but looks askance at his behavior here. Mamed says in the postfight that he broke his thumb in the 2nd round. Khalidov is a real tough dude and could be a force in the future…