(Come to think of it, we’d watch this again.)
Perhaps Melvin Guillard has made some DRASTIC improvements to his ground game since joining up with the Blackzilians, or perhaps he simply has some sort of autoerotic asphyxiation fetish, because the hard hitting lightweight recently told MMA Weekly that he wants his next fight to be a rematch against Joe Lauzon, whom you may recall, dropped Guillard and finished him with a rear-naked choke in just under 50 seconds of their UFC 136 bout. According to Guillard, the loss is the only in his career that he felt he truly should have won. Here’s what “The Young Assassin” had to say:
In the 10 losses I have in my MMA career, I haven’t rematched anyone I’ve lost to. Not once, I’ve never really cared for rematches because I felt they won, now I’ll move on. Right now, I’m at the point where this fight means something to me, I have something to prove against Joe Lauzon, so this is a rematch I’m asking for. Right now, I’m looking to watch the fights in Japan and I’m praying that he loses to (Anthony) Pettis because I want a rematch against Joe Lauzon. I don’t want to fight nobody next but Joe Lauzon. I don’t even care how it goes, I just want to see Pettis win and I want an immediate rematch with Joe Lauzon. Hopefully, I can get that rematch by fourth of July in Vegas.
Guillard also stated that his dislike for Lauzon has dramatically increased over the past couple months thanks to Twitter, go figure. Apparently Lauzon had some less than nice things to say about Guillard in the wake of his first round submission (also by rear-naked choke) loss to Jim Miller at the inaugural UFC on FX event. Shortly after the fight was over, Lauzon posted, “Some people never learn…that looked familiar.” That statement, along with several other comments Lauzon made expressing his frustration over Guillard’s claims that the loss was a fluke seem to have angered Guillard to no end:
Lately on my Twitter some posts have been popping up and I’m like what the hell is this? So I’m looking and next thing I know it’s people talking about Joe Lauzon hit the nail on the head, he was right, so I went in and read the article and all of a sudden he’s blasting me talking about he slapped me and he choked me out, and Melvin’s going around telling everybody I got lucky.
I never said the dude got lucky. I said it was a good fight, I always gave Joe Lauzon the respect that was due, and I thought he was the better guy that day. Did I think the fight was a fluke on my part? Yeah, the fight was a fluke on my part, but I never took anything from him. So I guess he misinterpreted what I said.
Guillard has grown so heated over Lauzon’s recent comments, in fact, that he has threatened to violate the CP ban of bringing back your old self when discussing his future pans for “J-Lau.”
The new me, I’m trying to be respectful and handle it the right way, but at this point right now I’m kind of fed up with it. The old me is about to come out on Joe Lauzon. He’s about to take Rich Clementi’s place of being that guy that I just don’t like.
If you recall, Clementi and Guillard had an epic war of words before, during, and after their UFC 79 battle. If you also recall, Clementi won that fight by way of REAR-NAKED CHOKE. Afterward, Clementi and Guillard nearly came to blows yet again when Clementi told Joe Rogan in the post fight interview that Melvin “still hadn’t learned his lesson.” Ironic.
What do you guys think? Does Guillard deserve another shot at Lauzon, or should we be talking about the fact that a man who was being touted as the next lightweight title contender not too long ago is now asking for rematch against an opponent who would hypothetically be coming off a loss? Discuss.
-J. Jones