After a seven-year drought, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is finally returning to Atlantic City, NJ with UFC on FX 4, featuring Gray Maynard vs. Clay Guida in the network-televised headliner booked for the new Revel Hotel and Casino on June 22, 2012.
From Press of Atlantic City:
The country's most popular mixed martial arts organization announced Monday that it will end its seven-year hiatus from Atlantic City on Friday, June 22 when it stages a card at Revel's 5,500-seat entertainment arena.
"I've never been to Atlantic City," Maynard said in a phone interview from Las Vegas. "I'm looking forward to it."
The $2.4 billion casino resort is scheduled to open April 2.
Maynard, a former two-time number one division contender, spent the entire 2011 mixed martial arts (MMA) fight season attempting to wrest the belt from the resilient clutches of UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar.
Despite his best efforts, including two brutal first rounds at UFC 125 and UFC 136, during which he beat "The Answer" from pillar to post, Edgar stormed back to earn a draw and then a come-from-behind technical knockout.
"The Bully," who now trains at American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) in San Jose, Calif., will now have to fight his way back toward the top, starting with "The Carpenter."
Guida himself was in the 2011 lightweight number one contender "mix," submitting Takanori Gomi and decisioning the last man to hold the World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) lightweight belt, Anthony Pettis.
In fact, he was riding a four-fight win streak inside the Octagon before Ben Henderson derailed his hairy hopes, taking a unanimous decision in a great back-and-forth battle at UFC on Fox 1 just last month to earn the next shot at Edgar.
So close, yet so far away, for both veterans.
No other bouts for UFC on FX 4 are known at this time. UFC 53: "Heavy Hitters" in June 2005 was the last time the organization held an event in South Jersey.
Stay tuned to MMAmania.com for the latest UFC on FX 4 news and notes.