It is an undeniable truth that in mixed martial arts, takedowns win fights.

Saturday night's UFC on FOX 6 match between Clay Guida and Hatsu Hioki can serve as another example of that, as Guida used his wrestling to dictate the fight's location but did little else. Despite Hioki threatening with submissions and landing the fight's most significant strike, the judges awarded the bout to Guida.

The final result was a split decision, with scores of 30-27, 29-28, 28-29.

Guida had trouble finding Hioki from the get-go, unable to navigate the five-inch reach differential. Hioki timed Guida's rushes and landed jabs and uppercuts in the first round. Guida scored a takedown with 90 seconds left in the round but couldn't hold Hioki down.

Guida decided to take striking out of the equation in the second and managed to take Hioki down with an early big slam. But Hioki spent a large portion of the round threatening with submissions, and Guida landed little of any substance. When the referee finally stood them up in the final 30 seconds, Hioki landed a thudding head kick.

Guida spent most of the third round on top as well, but aside from a few short right hands, he spent big portions of the frame working his way out of potential submission attempts.

Apparently, that was enough for two of the three judges, who awarded him the fight.

The win in his featherweight debut made Guida 30-13, while hard-luck loser Hioki dropped his second straight to fall to 26-6-2.