Many MMA fans carry the image of UFC lightweight Clay Guida’s image as that of fun loving devil that may car spitfire and eternal optimist but those who think Guida is simple along for ride in World’s premier mixed martial arts organization are really mistaken. Guida says, “I’ve never been satisfied to say ‘I fought in the UFC.’ I’m not going to go back down to smaller shows because of a poor display or a string of losses.” On Saturday night Guida, who was once rejected from being on a season of The Ultimate Fighter, will look to defeat a TUF winner for the third time when he faces off against Diego Sanchez. Sanchez is a one-time contender at welterweight that successfully moved down to lightweight last winter with a win over Joe Stevenson.

There are lots of similarities between Sanchez and Guida and their strengths that include incredible conditioning, aggressiveness and other features. More than that Sanchez also has exceptional capitulation skills and is the unsurprisingly larger fighter. So, surprise, surprise, Clay Guida is once again an underdog. But don’t expect him to be more impressed with Sanchez than he has been with any of his past conquered foes. Guida admits regarding Sanchez, “He has improved his striking. But he looks kind of robotic, not natural. How many of his past opponents really pushed him?”

Most of the chatter contiguous the Spike TV main event on the 20th has been regarding a possible title shot for Sanchez should he win excitingly. But Guida doesn’t want anyone to forget that he’s the one that has already beaten some of the globe’s best lightweights and is currently riding a three fight win streak. He promised, “It’s only a matter of time before I get that belt wrapped around my waist.”

This Clay Guida isn’t the ultra fan friendly, courteous and self-effacing human being. He is 99.9% of the time. But Guida isn’t all high energy entrances, rock music and surfer hair. There is one more side to the man that only his training partners and opponents get to fully experience. That side of Guida isn’t all smiles and satisfied with simply fighting at a high level – instead, it is consumed with the longing to be the best.

And though Guida seems to possess a remarkable child-like exuberance while competing, much like NFL great Brett Farvre did, he also won’t be satisfied until he achieves the same challenge success as the long time Packer. Guida, a diehard Chicago Bears fan and Soldier Field regular, will have to forgive the cheese head comparison.

Regarding his loss to Roger Huerta he said, “I shouldn’t have rushed in. I should have had better defense.” He further said, “My high school varsity football coach Bob Bradshaw said something to us back then and I believed it but never truly understood it until I started fighting. He said that you play the way you practice. If you practice hard, you will play hard. If you practice correctly, you will fight correctly.”

But the one thing Guida always holds steady in his mind is that his opponent, no matter who he is and no matter who else he’s fought, has never before faced someone quite “The Carpenter.” He said, “I’m not going to stop, I’m never going to tap. One thing about me is that I’m going to make you fight my style of fight.”