Ultimate Fight Night 19 Preview

UFC Fight Nights are great for the UFC, not because the matches are necessarily relevant to title pictures, but because the fights are almost always exciting, and that’s the way the UFC likes it. Including this event, Nate Diaz will have fought in five different UFC Fight Night events, as well as two TUF Finales. The reason is clear: Nate Diaz puts on exciting fights.

Nate Diaz and Melvin Guillard are two UFC fighters with serious attitude.

The Diaz brothers both have been known for never shying from controversy and confrontation. They almost started a brawl inside the cage when Nick Diaz called out KJ Noons a while back.

Nate Diaz has also previously not wanted to attend the pre-fight press conferences, because as he sees it, he shouldn’t be in the same room as the guy he’s going to be fighting soon. Few fighters take this stance.

However, as controversial as Diaz may be, he still is usually a classy competitor after the fight, congratulating his opponents, and showing them respect. Melvin Guillard is likely the more outrageous of the two.

Guillard has been given a ton of chances in the UFC. He’s been brought back after testing postive for cocaine, and also has used a lot of trash talk before and after his fights, most notably his fight with Rich Clementi.

Nevertheless, Guillard has been given chances because of his exciting go-for-broke fighting style, and his explosive athleticism.

Due to the amount of trash talking these two will be likely to engage in leading up to the fight, it might be worth watching the pre-fight rituals just to see if something crazy does happen.

If Dana White is successful in preventing Diaz and Guillard from killing each other before their scheduled bout, we should be in for an exciting battle.

Guillard should be the more powerful and dangerous striker of the two, but has been known for being vulnerable to submissions. However, this might not be a problem, as Diaz might be willing to test the waters on the feet before attempting a takedown.

The longer the fight stays on the feet, the better Guillard will do. However, he has been working on his defensive wrestling and submission defense, so even if the fight hits the mat, it’s not necessarily game over. But while Guillard does have three victories by submission, don’t expect him to threaten with any submissions against the Cesar Gracie brown belt holder.

I can’t say that this fight will last very long, but it will be a barnburner for however long it goes.

The fight that has the greatest title-relevance, however, is not the main event, but is in fact the co-main event fight between Roger Huerta, and Gray Maynard.

Huerta was once heavily marketed by the UFC, and was being pushed for a title shot. However, he lost a one-sided decision to Kenny Florian over a year ago, and hasn’t fought again since. In fact, he’s made his intentions clear that he is now going to pursue acting full-time rather than renew his contract with the UFC that ends after his fight with Maynard.

The UFC isn’t giving Huerta an easy farewell fight.

Gray Maynard is considered to be a top contender in the lightweight division, and comes into this fight as a heavy betting favorite.

Yet despite his talent, Gray Maynard hasn’t become a big star in the UFC yet. In earlier fights, Maynard would tend to rely upon his wrestling to get himself out of trouble, and as a result, not all of his fights were exciting.

He also doesn’t have that marketable look that would make the UFC more likely to push him forward as a contender. Yet eventually the cream does rise to the top, as Maynard forced the UFC to take notice of him by reeling off five consecutive victories.

The fight against Huerta will finally give Maynard the opportunity to earn a win over a high-profile opponent.

Should Maynard win impressively he may indeed earn himself the next title shot after Diego Sanchez.

When this fight takes place, Maynard should own a significant wrestling advantage, and may even have an advantage with the sharpness of his striking.

However, Roger Huerta is adept at both scrambling and submissions, so he may be able to neutralize much of Maynard’s wrestling. Huerta’s best chance might be to try to turn this fight into a brawl, and go for the knockout.

Despite the betting line heavily favoring Maynard, I still see a lot of ways that Huerta could in this fight on paper. However the big reason I favor Maynard is because Maynard has a lot more at stake in this fight.

A win for Maynard will propel him to the top of the division, while a loss will disappoint the UFC brass who would love to send Roger Huerta out of his contract on a loss.

Meanwhile, Huerta may be more focussed on his acting career than he is on training and preparing for what should be a very difficult fight.

The UFC Fight Night main card also features Carlos Condit in a chance to redeem himself following following his loss to Martin Kampmann. As well, The fight between Nate Quarry and Tim Credeur should be a war.

The undercard is no-less interesting, as C.B. Dollaway and Phillipe Nover may be fighting for their post-TUF careers.

Brian Stann and Steve Cantwell resume their competitive rivalry, while fighters like Brock Larson hope to finish their fights impressively enough to make it on to the televised broadcast.

By Darren Wong for FightMania.com

Tags: Carlos Condit, Dana White, Diego Sanchez, Gray Maynard, Kenny Florian, Martin Kampmann, Melvin Guillard, Nate Diaz, Nate Quarry, Nick Diaz, UFC