Melvin Guillard‘s UFC 150 fight with former friend and training partner Donald Cerrone only lasted 76 seconds.
But their fight, which earned “Fight of the Night” honors, was one of the best fights of the year.
That is the only upside of the fight for Guillard though, who lost by knockout after having Cerrone hurt early in the fight.
Guillard was looking to win back-to-back fights and prove he was ready to get back into lightweight title contention.
Instead, the former TUF competitor has lost three of his last four fights and is starting to look like he will never meet his full potential.
Guillard is a great fighter who is one of the best in the lightweight division.
But he has yet to get a good win over a top-five caliber fighter.
Guillard has faced household names like Jim Miller, Nate Diaz and Joe Lauzon, but has come up short against each man, losing by submission.
In fact, nine of Guillard‘s 11 losses have come by submission.
While it was amazing that last night’s loss was just Guillard‘s first KO loss in his 44-fight career, he has to be thinking what exactly he could have done differently.
Now Guillard is back to the drawing board in figuring out what to do next.
For once it wasn’t Guillard‘s submission defense that failed him.
Although he had Cerrone hurt and he went for the knockout, Guillard appeared to back off the pressure some.
That could have been so he wouldn’t gas himself out or that could have been because Cerrone was just that good at recovering.
Either way, Guillard is in a tough spot. While he should want to continue taking on big names, he also has to get wins.
Because Guillard is in a stacked division there are a ton of options for him as far as competition goes.
One fighter that really sticks out though is Clay Guida.
Like Guillard, Guida is a fighter who could make a great gatekeeper, but would rather think of himself as a more elite fighter.
Guida is coming off of two losses and has had some difficulty against top guys in the division.
While Guida has tried to go for the lay, pray and dash approach in his fights lately, taking on a former teammate in Guillard could bring out the excitement in Guida.
For Guillard, a win over Guida would hopefully get him back on the right track.
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