With news surfacing the other day that Manny Gamburyan suffered an injury and wouldn’t be able to compete against Chad Mendes Feb. 23 at UFC 157, it didn’t take long to find a replacement. Mendes will not only be moved from UFC 157 to UFC on Fox 7, but he has also received a step up in competition.
Mendes (4-1 UFC) meets fellow featherweight Clay Guida (10-7 UFC) at UFC on FOX 7 on April 20, UFC President Dana White confirmed with USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com on Monday. The event takes place at the H.P. Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. Mendes vs. Guida could be one of four fights featured on the network-televised main card, which follows prelims on FX and Facebook.
Mendes has accumulated back-to-back knockout wins over Cody McKenzie and Yaotzin Meza after failing to capture the featherweight title against Jose Aldo. Both fights after his title loss were fill in fights. Fighters keep dropping like flies and it seems like no one besides Clay is willing to fight Mendes. According to Mendes’ manager, Mike Roberts, it’s not surprising UFC officials couldn’t find a replacement to keep him on the UFC 157 card.
“There’s not a huge line of people that want to fight Chad, especially on two weeks’ (notice),” he said. “But Chad is the best – if not, the second best – guy in that weight division, period. Chad’s not going to turn anybody down. He believes he can beat anybody.”
He will get that chance with Guida. Guida is the first real wrestler that Mendes will encounter and this will be a true test for the man a lot consider the number two man in the division.
This fight has added to an already stacked line-up. The latest UFC on FOX 7 card includes:
- Champ Benson Henderson vs. Gilbert Melendez – for lightweight title
- Daniel Cormier vs. Frank Mir
- Nate Diaz vs. Josh Thomson
- Matt Brown vs. Dan Hardy
- Clay Guida vs. Chad Mendes
- Roger Bowling vs. Anthony Njokuani
- Jorge Masvidal vs. Tim Means
- Myles Jury vs. Ramsey Nijem
- Clifford Starks vs. Yoel Romero
- Norman Parke vs. Jon Tuck
~ Final Thought ~
I was actually hoping that we would get to see a Mendes/Edgar fight since everyone still thinks Mendes is number two in the division. But this fight is still a great contest and since Guida dropped down, he needs to fight the best in the division. Mendes’ last few fights have done nothing for his record as far as I’m concerned, but a win over Guida could definitely push him closer to the top.