Despite his popularity as a lightweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization, MMA fighter Clay 'The Carpenter' Guida is noticeably absent from THQ's UFC 2009 Undisputed mixed martial arts game, which released last week for PS3 and Xbox 360.

According to a report from Fight! Magazine passed on by 5th Round, Guida's long hair caused clipping and collision detection issues in the game that made his character nearly unplayable. The piece also claims, oddly: "THQ had reportedly offered Guida money to cut his hair so that they could keep him in the game but Guida apparently turned down the offer."

UFC 2009 Undisputed's developer, Yuke's Osaka, is also said to have had clipping issues with southpaw stances for left-handed fighters like Rich Franklin. To fix this, the game displays southpaw fighters with a right-hand stance, according to Wikipedia notes from the same article.

(Nonetheless, the game is extremely well-received critically, and may well turn out to be a major sales hit, judging by initial chart placings and buzz, paralleling the rise to power of MMA over the once dominant WWE-style wrestling.)

[Via 5th Round - thanks, QT3!]