Filed under: UFCThe first-ever UFC on FX fight card is being headlined by a lightweight showdown between Melvin Guillard and Jim Miller at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.
Guillard will look to bounce back from his 47-second loss to Joe Lauzo…
The first-ever UFC on FX fight card is being headlined by a lightweight showdown between Melvin Guillard and Jim Miller at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.
Guillard will look to bounce back from his 47-second loss to Joe Lauzon last October at UFC 136. Meanwhile, Miller will aim to get back on the win column after falling last August to Ben Henderson. Both lightweights were on track for a title shot until those losses.
To say that Melvin Guillard has had an up-and-down career would be an understatement.Since entering the UFC in 2005, Guillard has gone a respectable 10-5 but struggled to make his way to a title fight.His most recent outing in October of last year…
To say that Melvin Guillard has had an up-and-down career would be an understatement.
Since entering the UFC in 2005, Guillard has gone a respectable 10-5 but struggled to make his way to a title fight.
His most recent outing in October of last year ended in just 47 seconds when he was submitted by rear-naked choke to Joe Lauzon. The loss snapped a five-fight win streak that many believed had earned him his shot at gold.
Guillard has shown throughout his career that he has the makings of a champion. He is a devastating striker and finishes his opponents by KO more often than not. He even has a few submissions to his credit.
Guillard often enters fights cocky, almost too sure of himself and has been made to pay for it several times. He refuses to work on his ground game despite it being his biggest weakness as eight of his nine losses come by submission.
Perhaps worst of all is his propensity to party. Guillard has been known to run around the party scene days before fight night and has been well documented in his use of recreational drugs.
He even tested positive for cocaine in a post-fight drug test.
If Guillard really wants to reenter the title hunt, he has many personal problems that he has to overcome. He sticks too steadfastly to what he likes to do and refuses to change himself for anyone.
Melvin Guillard is an extremely talented fighter, but he seems to be doing everything he can to keep UFC gold just out of reach.
Melvin Guillard may have suffered a tremendous upset loss to Joe Lauzon at UFC 136, but apparently, he remains very much in the lightweight title picture.In an interview with MMACanada.net, Guillard talked about the lessons he learned from his loss to …
Melvin Guillard may have suffered a tremendous upset loss to Joe Lauzon at UFC 136, but apparently, he remains very much in the lightweight title picture.
In an interview with MMACanada.net, Guillard talked about the lessons he learned from his loss to Lauzon and his upcoming bout with Jim Miller at UFC on Fox 1.
“It’s funny how you learn things over the years, and you go back as an adult and learn it again,” said Guillard.
“I think the biggest thing I learned was to be patient and not rush myself. The only reason [Joe Lauzon] won that fight was because I rushed myself, I was rushing my shots trying to hit him, and I actually ran into a stiff jab that actually rocked me. By the time I hit the canvas, I shook it off, but before I could shake it off, he was already on my back.”
Before the loss to Lauzon, Guillard was considered a frontrunner for a UFC title shot, but the old adage proved once again that anything can happen inside the octagon.
Lauzon dropped Guillard with a left hand and latched on a rear naked choke that had the lightweight contender tapping in merely 47 seconds.
The attending crowd erupted in disbelief immediately after, but none were more shocked than Guillard himself, who sat motionless staring off into space as Lauzon celebrated with his corner.
“It’s a life lesson. I walked away with no scratches, no bruises, and now I’ve been blessed even more. After a loss, the first time in my UFC career, they’re actually giving me a number one contender fight against Jim Miller live January 20 in Nashville,” Guillard said.
If true, it would be a pretty interesting circumstance to have two lightweights coming off losses and still receiving an opportunity to compete for a UFC title.
With that said, it isn’t like Guillard and Miller are undeserving of the opportunity.
Miller, who was defeated soundly by top lightweight contender Benson Henderson at UFC on Versus 5, was riding a seven-fight win streak over significantly tough opposition before his loss, and Guillard had amounted five-straight victories over stellar opposition as well, leading up to his bout with Lauzon.
“Jim Miller is one of my favorite fighters to watch. I admire the guy, I love his style of fighting, I love his killer instinct,” said Guillard.
“I’m down in Florida training with Rashad Evans and the guys at Imperial. I got me a personal trainer as far as my Jiu-Jitsu. He actually used to train the Nogueira brothers. I’m working with Rashad and [Mike] van Arsdale on my wrestling, which I’m already a state champion, so I’m sharpening my tools that I keep having the issues with in the ring.”
There’s a reason why UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has yet to lose in the Octagon and has been so dominant inside the Octagon.Since 2006, nine of Silva’s 14 organizational victories have come by way of knockout against the middleweight divis…
There’s a reason why UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has yet to lose in the Octagon and has been so dominant inside the Octagon.
Since 2006, nine of Silva’s 14 organizational victories have come by way of knockout against the middleweight division’s best.
Joining Silva is explosive lightweight Melvin Guillard, who owns knockout victories over Shane Roller, Evan Dunham, Waylon Lowe, and Denis Siver among others.
A host of former champions along with a current welterweight contender round out the top six fighters in takedowns landed with five mininum fights according to Fight Metric.
Around this time a year ago, Melvin Guillard and Jim Miller were just becoming two of the biggest contenders in the UFC Lightweight division.However, after suffering pretty bad losses in the second half of 2011, both fighters are back to just being “in…
Around this time a year ago, Melvin Guillard and Jim Miller were just becoming two of the biggest contenders in the UFC Lightweight division.
However, after suffering pretty bad losses in the second half of 2011, both fighters are back to just being “in the mix” despite going on impressive runs.
Miller was heavily considered the top contender after Gray Maynard, until his seven-fight win streak was snapped by former WEC Lightweight champion Benson Henderson.
Guillard was also on a lengthy winning streak until October, when Joe Lauzon served him his first loss since 2009.
Now, both fighters will look to get back into their winning ways as they headline the UFC’s first event on FX.
Here is the complete break down for this exciting matchup.
Since the very beginning of Melvin Guillard’s run in the world of mixed martial arts—which began nearly 15 years ago—the man they call “The Young Assassin” has had one constant goal in the sport. “My intentions were …
Since the very beginning of Melvin Guillard’s run in the world of mixed martial arts—which began nearly 15 years ago—the man they call “The Young Assassin” has had one constant goal in the sport.
“My intentions were to be a world champion—a UFC champion—from the very beginning,” Guillard, 28, recently told Bleacher Report. “Ever since I first saw the UFC, I’ve wanted to be a UFC champion.”
After a year of amateur wrestling, Guillard, who was born in Louisiana, first tried his hand at mixed martial arts at 14.
“I used to have all of the old UFCs on VHS, but I lost them in Katrina,” Guillard explained. “I was always into fighting. My mom couldn’t afford to put me in karate or tae kwon do and when I started wrestling, it was free. My wrestling coach in high school was fighting MMA at the time and he got me into it. I just fell in love with it, man.”
A professional in the sport since the tender age of 16—he routinely fought opponents twice his age in his early days; Guillard, who also competed in boxing and kickboxing, notched victories over Joe Jordan, Diego Saraiva and Kyle Bradley before appearing on The Ultimate Fighter in 2005.
Since leaving the TUF house, Guillard has won 11 of 16 matches in the Octagon—including victories over Marcus Davis, Dennis Siver, Gleison Tibau, Jeremy Stephens and Evan Dunham—and is regarded by most as one of the world’s top lightweight contenders.
In Guillard’s most recent match—likely the closest he has thus far gotten to a title-shot in the UFC—the explosive lightweight was submitted by Joe Lauzon at UFC 136.
Despite his most recent outing, Guillard is, perhaps not surprisingly, still on a mission to one day claim UFC gold.
“I know in my heart that I’m going to be the champion soon, I just have to put in the work,” Guillard said.
“I’m a person that cares about life, and right now, that belt determines where my life is going to go from this point on…Becoming a world champion is the ultimate goal—that’s why we do this.”
Although his aspirations in mixed martial arts have stayed the same, Guillard, who has been a mainstay in the UFC since 2005, is quick to insist that he has consistently been evolving outside the sport throughout the course of his career.
“I’ve matured over the years, of course,” Guillard, who is married with pair of canine companions, explained. “That comes with age. Of course you’re going to mature and start settling down and start thinking things through before you go out and always act crazy. That comes with maturity—that has nothing to do with fighting.”
“I was a kid when I first got in the UFC, now I’m a grown man. Of course, if you’re a kid, you’ve got to grow with the sport and you go through your ups and downs. As a man, you’re going to go through your ups and downs, too, but when I started, I was literally a 14-year-old kid—now I’m a 28-year-old man. That’s years of maturity, mistakes and ups and downs. I’ve really matured a lot.”
Although Guillard doesn’t attribute his maturation to mixed martial arts, he can’t help but reflect “every day” on how important the sport has been in his life.
“Without this sport, I don’t know where I would’ve ended up or what I would’ve been in to,” Guillard admitted.
“I could’ve possibly been selling drugs or something like that, because that’s the kind of stuff that was going on when I was a kid. As much as my parents kept me away from it, I was still around it. I had friends that did it—I never did—but I had friends that were into it. Had I not been a fighter and had my mind set on wanting something out of my life, I could’ve probably ended up like one of those guys that are in and out of jail or in prison for a long time.”
As for the nickname—much like his aspirations to one day hold a UFC championship—Guillard has no intentions of changing that any time soon, either.
“I’ll be 50 years old—like Herschel Walker—and I’ll still be ‘The Young Assassin,’” Guillard, who is to return to action against Jim Miller at UFC on FX: Guillard vs. Miller on January 20th, said with a laugh.
“It’s not about your age, man; it’s how you feel. I know some guys that are younger than me right now and they get out of bed every morning and they’re hurting like they’ve been in a tragic car accident. It’s all about how you feel when you wake up in the morning and I feel great.”
The first-ever UFC on FX fight card is being headlined by a lightweight showdown between Melvin Guillard and Jim Miller at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.
To say that