With officials unable to find a replacement for injured opponent Manny Gamburyan, Chad Mendes has been pulled from the Feb. 23 UFC 157 event altogether. But the former title challenger is getting what is arguably a bigger fight when Mendes (13-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) meets fellow featherweight Clay Guida (30-13 MMA, 10-7 UFC) at UFC on FOX 7 on April 20, UFC President Dana White confirmed with USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com ( This content is protected ) on Monday. The event takes place at HP 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. Since a failed title shot with champion Jose Aldo in early 2012, Mendes has posted back-to-back knockout wins over Cody McKenzie and Yaotzin Meza to put the division on notice. 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'll get that opportunity against Guida, who has the same strengths (wrestling and cardio) as Mendes. The former lightweight recently made the drop to featherweight and suffered a split-decision loss to perennial contender Gray Maynard. However, the high-energy Guida rebounded in January and edged Hatsu Hioki via split decision. In addition to Mendes vs. Guida, UFC on FOX 7 also features a previously announced headliner of lightweight champ Benson Henderson (18-2, 6-0) vs. Strikeforce import Gilbert Melendez (21-2, 0-0). Heavyweights Frank Mir (16-6, 14-6) and Daniel Cormier (11-0, 0-0) meet in the co-headliner. 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 Hopefully mandes will win, i cant stand guida. Hope he gets dominated!
I like Guida, but Mendes is a different animal now. I look forward to watching him and Woodley fight on... Losing that 0 will be the best thing to ever happen to them.
To keep things in perspective, Mendes looked like an animal against Cody McKenzie and Yaotzin Meza. Not exactly the toughest competition. Guida will be a good test.
I agree. Mendes is very muscular for a little guy. I'm assuming they're fighting in a 3 round fight, which will help Mendes. If Guida makes him run out of gas, things could get interesting.
Ah well, good half hour break inbetween fights for a lnp match, just wondering if Guida will show up with some extra oil on his hairy gross body to make it that much more a lame "fight." Yay, get to watch a glam rock hairy guy sit on top of a muscular guy whipping his hair back and forth like Willow Smith. Seriously, there are all those toll free numbers that the WWE used to use, you could call, pay a dollar to vote for who you think would win.. Maybe the UFC should have a toll free number for us to call and decide who we would like to see cut. I might even call it!
:happy ooo, I hope we get to see Clay using his patented shoulder shrugs, man those things are lethal, he will shrug you into next week in the blink of an eye! atsch I think Mr White and co have made this match up intentionally, because it is a very bad match up for Guida imo, I cant see him being able to blanket Mendes, so he may have to actually fight.....which will lead to him losing, and possibly getting cut from the UFC....well, in an ideal world. Dont get me wrong, I dont wish the guy any ill fortune, I would just rather he fought in one of the smaller org's, one that I dont watch preferably:tired
His last two fights and whomever they put up against him now is probably gonna stunt his growth, right?