Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. Rising Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight
Claudio
Puelles is about to receive a very stern litmus test. First announced by FordewinMMA
on Twitter on Friday, Clay Guida
(37-21) will be facing Puelles (11-2) at a currently unnamed
UFC
Fight Night card on April 23. This matchup, which currently has
no location set, was subsequently confirmed by Puelles’ management
team of Iridium
Sports Agency, and then by Puelles on
Instagram shortly thereafter. The two men will be facing off at
lightweight, on a card that has only one additional fight booked:
Louis
Cosce vs. Preston
Parsons at welterweight, which also broke
on Friday from Team Iridium.
Guida earned one of his biggest wins in years in his last
performance against Leonardo
Santos in December. Taking serious damage in the opening round
only to pull off a comeback for the ages against the 41-year-old
Brazilian, Guida became the first man to submit Santos as a
professional. “The Carpenter” bookended a close loss to Mark O.
Madsen in August 2021 with a decision over Michael
Johnson a few months earlier and the victory against Santos at
the end of the year. The 40-year-old fan-favorite will be entering
into his 33rd UFC bout, which will put him in the top five in
company history.
Since dropping his promotional debut in 2016 to Martin
Bravo while vying to win the third season of “The Ultimate
Fighter: Latin America,” Puelles has not looked back. Although he
has only competed four times since that November 2016 match, he has
won all four. Most notably, he submitted Felipe
Silva and Chris
Gruetzemacher with kneebars on his way through the division,
and became the first fighter in organizational history to record
multiple kneebar submissions on the roster.
