ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Waiting for the decision, Gray Maynard smacked himself on each side of the face a few times to rile up the crowd.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Waiting for the decision, Gray Maynard smacked himself on each side of the face a few times to rile up the crowd.
At last, some hitting.
Clay Guida danced and dodged his way around the octagon for five rounds and it cost him a few thousand fans and points on the scorecard. Maynard beat Guida by split decision to win a lackluster lightweight bout and the main event of the UFC card.
Maynard won 48-47 on two of the scorecards Friday night. Guida won the other 48-47.
“That fight sucked,” UFC President Dana White said. “I don’t know how to expand on it any more.”
Guida repeatedly stalled and gestured toward Maynard, even pointing at his braided hair — doing just about everything but attack. He was even warned by the referee in the fifth round to pick up a slow pace that had the crowd booing through most of the last two rounds.
“It took me two rounds just to know, I think this guy is going to do this the whole fight,” Maynard said. “I was here to work, let’s work.”
Maynard landed a series of rights early in the fifth to finally snap the fight out of a funk and perhaps tilt the scorecard in his favor.
Maynard bounced back from the first loss of his MMA career. He had a draw and a loss to Frankie Edgar in his last two fights and called out Edgar again after beating Guida.
Guida said his game plan was to be “unpredictable.”
“He hits like a Mack Truck,” Guida said. “I didn’t want to be there for too much of it.”
In other bouts on the main card, Cub Swanson stopped former “The Ultimate Fighter” winner Ross Pearson via TKO in the second round; Brian Ebersole defeated TJ Waldburger by unanimous decision; and Sam Stout topped Spencer Fisher by unanimous decision.