Years of hard work and consistent performance have brought
Chris
Gutierrez to the top of the bill in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship.
The 32-year-old
Factory
X bantamweight will collide with
Yadong Song
in the
UFC Fight Night 233 headliner on Saturday at the UFC Apex in
Las Vegas, where a decisive victory could conceivably propel him
into the Top 10 at 135 pounds. Gutierrez has rattled off five wins
across his past six outings. The former Sugar Creek Showdown and
World Fighting Championships titleholder last appeared at UFC Fight
Night 230, where he laid claim to a unanimous decision over
Heili
Alateng in their three-round encounter on Oct. 14.
As Gutierrez makes final preparations for his upcoming battle with
Song, a look at a few of the rivalries that have helped shape his
career to this point:
The talented but enigmatic Russian exacted a measure of revenge
under the
World Series of Fighting flag when he when he pocketed a
unanimous decision over Gutierrez in their WSOF 33 rematch on Oct.
6, 2016 at Municipal Auditorium Arena in Kansas City, Missouri.
Scores were 29-28, 30-27 and 30-27. Valiev executed takedowns in
all three rounds—a belly-to-back suplex in the middle stanza was a
clear highlight—and consolidated those efforts by pairing extended
periods of stifling control with ground-and-pound and timely
positional advances. Gutierrez’s frustration built throughout the
15-minute affair, and he appeared to grow somewhat gun-shy in
standup exchanges due to the threat of being taken down. The win
moved Valiev to 1-1 in his head-to-head series with the American,
who had beaten him on split scorecards at WSOF 28 some seven months
earlier.
The hard-nosed Covington, Georgia, native battled to a unanimous
draw with Gutierrez in a three-round UFC Fight Night 173
bantamweight prelim on Aug. 1, 2020 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
All three cageside judges struck 28-28 scorecards. Durden roared
out of the gate and perhaps caught the Marc Montoya protégé
off-guard with his aggression in the first round, where he secured
a takedown, progressed to the back and spent four-plus minutes in
complete control. He showered Gutierrez with short punches and
hammerfists, all while threatening rear-naked chokes and neck
cranks. While Durden’s efforts failed to produce a finish, they
resulted in a 10-8 mark on each scorecard. They also came at a
cost, as the American Top Team Atlanta rep depleted his gas tank
and had to go the rest of the way on fumes. Gutirrez battered him
with kicks across the final 10 minutes and managed to deny 10 of
his final 11 takedown attempts.
Gutierrez knocked out “The Answer” with a brutal knee strike in the
second round of their UFC 281 bantamweight showcase on Nov. 12,
2022 at Madison Square Garden in New York. The retiring Edgar bowed
out 2:01 into Round 1, his remarkable career coming to a close in
ignominious fashion. Gutierrez circled on the perimeter, unleashed
a few of his patented leg kicks and waited for an opening to
present itself. The Greenville, Texas, native fired a knee up the
middle that caught Edgar clean on the chin and propelled him
backward onto the canvas in a supine position. No follow-up shots
were required. It was Gutierrez’s first first-round knockout in
nearly eight years and provided him with a signature victory moving
forward.
The former
Resurrection Fighting Alliance champion on April 15, 2023
outmaneuvered Gutierrez to a unanimous decision in their featured
UFC on ESPN 44 attraction at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City,
Missouri. Munhoz swept the scorecards with matching 30-27 marks
from all three members of the cageside judiciary. The
American Top Team export leaned on relentless pressure and made
the most of a hot start, as he floored Gutierrez with a clean left
before he controlled the rest of the first round with
ground-and-pound, submission attempts and positional advances.
Munhoz ultimately forced “
El Guapo” into a
reactive state on his back foot, often reducing him to single
strikes. Perhaps sensing his back was against the proverbial wall,
Gutierrez changed gears in Round 3. There, he turned to more exotic
techniques—he even tried a rolling thunder kick at one point—but
failed to connect with something meaningful enough to alter the
direction of the fight.