UFC 132 Fight Card: A Mature Melvin Guillard Talks Matchup With Shane Roller

Courtesy of Matthew Roth (www.headkicklegend.com)

Matthew: Hey Melvin, how you doing?

Melvin: How you doing son?

Matthew: I’m doing pretty good man, how’s the training going for your fight next weekend?

Melvin: Ah man training’s going awesome man. Like I’ve been telling everybody else, I’ve been doing a lot of swimming, I’ve had a lot more Strength and Conditioning, submersive recovery, and even started doing gymnastics. I took a page out of Georges’ book so I feel great man. I have no doubts, no worries. I’m 100% healthy and I’m just ready to get in there and fight.

Matthew: Awesome, as far as the mood and environment at Jackson’s, there was a bit of an issue this year with Rashad leaving. What’s your take on the mood and environment at Jackson’s right now?

Melvin: You know, the mood and everything is still good. I mean, it’s almost like it never happened. I didn’t get too much into that. I don’t get into that, it’s not any of my business as to what happened. Me and Rashad are still like brothers. Me and Jon are still like brothers. Me and Coach Greg, everybody’s still great. Some people have personal issues with certain people, that’s just how it is. That’s just life, know what I mean? Not everybody is gonna see eye to eye with their trainers or their boss, so it’s no different than being in a regular work environment and you’re not getting along with some of your coworkers. Some people just opt to leave and go somewhere else. That’s all it is, just misunderstandings of egos. Everybody’ll get over it and eventually one day everybody will be back on the same page.

Matthew: That’s good to hear. As far as your training, you’re at Jackson’s. Do you call Albuquerque home?

Melvin: Nah. Home for me right now is Oklahoma. The wife, she’s attending Oklahoma University. I live there. I’d rather not live where I train. That was one of the things that happened in Houston, where I was going to Houston for just training and then going back to New Orleans. And then Katrina happened so I moved to Houston and then the next thing I know, I lost focus. So right now, I’d rather stay in Oklahoma where I also train with Dr. Ryan Trip, who’s my Judo coach and he’s also like my mentor. I spend a lot of time playing golf with him and hanging out with him. It keeps me out of trouble and keeps me outta the clubs. I see a lot more day light now than I used to and I think that’s a great thing for me. I would never live in Albuquerque because a lot of the guys that actually live here, they train hard but they don’t go above and beyond sometimes to do the extra stuff. The guys who come here from out of town, we take full advantage of all the opportunities that Albuquerque has to offer as far as training.

Matthew: As far this fight, it’s at lightweight, you’ve been on a tear at lightweight lately. You beat Ronnie Torres, Waylon Lowe, Jeremy Stephens, and you finished Evan Dunham by strikes in your last fight, where do you see yourself right now in the lightweight division?

Melvin: I’m somewhere in there man. I don’t really focus too much on rankings, to me it’s just a number, it’s just like age. Some people age different and some people look a lot younger than their age. So to me rankings don’t mean nothing unless you’re number one. Everybody has an opinion. The fans have opinions. The owners. The matchmakers. Everybody’s different so it doesn’t really matter. The only position that matters is being number one in the world. That’s why right now I’m so focused on pushing this whole grand prix talk because if we can do a grand prix and weed out all the other guys that don’t really matter, it will definitely give us a number one contender to take the belt.

Matthew: I’m actually for a grand prix as well. We’re about to post something about it on our site. Your career, you’ve had some ups and downs but the big thing that you brought up is that you’ve sometimes lost focus in fights. Is there one fight in particular that you’d like to have back and fight that person today as the Melvin of today?

Melvin: Yeah, that Nate Diaz fight. I was just talking about that today to the guys at my barber shop when I got my hair cut. If there was one fight I could have back, I’d want that Nate Diaz fight back because that was my last fight before I came to Jackson’s and to me, honestly I felt like I was winning that fight until I got caught in a submission so that would be the fight that I’d want back. But for the most part I don’t look back too much too often, I just like to keep moving forward. Life has been great, God has been good to me. I’m healthy. Me and my wife are getting along great. Life is just wonderful for me right now. On another side, I feel like I’ve grown as an adult and a better person. So right now, whatever God’s got in store for me, that’s what will happen. I really feel in my heart that I’ll be UFC champion in another year or so but whenever I’m offered that opportunity to fight for the World Championship, I will be champion.

Matthew: Now, before you were selected for the Ultimate Fighter, you had a fight with Roger Huerta. There’s been some controversy about what caused the no contest, is there anyway you can explain what happened?

Melvin: Yeah, I had an idiot cornerman who worked for my former manager at the time. I was taking instructions from Warren Donnelley who was my wrestling coach from my High School who was my first MMA coach. I wasn’t paying attention but the guy was rubbing my shoulders with Albolene, which is a moisturizer like lotion and they caught wind of it. If people go back and look at the fight, I was never taken down and put in a submission situation to where it affected his submissions. We weren’t aware of it until after we watched the tape. I didn’t care because it was ruled a no constest, it’s the only no contest on my record. But at the end of the day, I went home with the five grand and the actual tournament cup so it didn’t matter if it was a no contest or not, I still went home with the money so I never really tripped on it. I know when Roger Huerta did come to the UFC for a while I did want that fight. I begged them to fight that guy but I think at the time they were pushing him to be the next star of the weight class. He ended up on the front cover of Sports Illustrated which I though he was kind of overrated. But for the most part, he reaped the benefits but then he kind of shot himself in the foot in the end. So it happens, it happens to a lot of guys. I’m just glad it didn’t happen to me.

Matthew: Now as far as the beef you’ve had with Rich Clementi, do you see that as water under the bridge, you’ve advanced in your career?

Melvin: Well, I haven’t seen Rich in years and I really don’t care for the guy. I think back home that a lot of people that thought the guy was a legit guy are starting to see otherwise like I was always complaining about in the past. He’s just a real sneaky guy. I don’t really care, it’s just another person in the past that’s behind me. My life is great now so I don’t need to bash anybody else. Whatever he’s off doing, he’s off doing. I doubt that he’s ever going to be successful in the UFC but whatever’s going on in his life is on him. But I know what’s going on in mine and I’m just gonna stay focused on trying to stay positive.

Matthew: Now as far as this fight with Shane Roller, just playing Devil’s Advocate a little bit...the guy’s obviously a phenomenal wrestler. How would you respond to a critic saying all he needs to do is get you down to the ground and he can just body you on the ground and ride out a decision?

Melvin: Well that tells me that a lot of you guys don’t do your homework. I’m a Division 1 state wrestler out of Louisiana. I wrestled 14 years, I went to Nationals two years in a row. My cousin is Daniel Cormier who wrestled in the Olympics and he was one of my coaches for Team Louisiana. I have a very strong wrestling background. I come from a wrestling family. A lot of people don’t really do their homework because I show so much with my striking that people don’t even think about my wrestling. So for me, if I have to go takedown for takedown with Shane Roller, I can take him down just as easy. But like I tell all of you guys, it’s not a wrestling match. It’s MMA. There will be knees. There will be elbows. There will be fists flying so you have to weather all those storms, all those hurricanes to even land a takedown. And even if he gets a takedown, he has to work even harder to keep me down. I’m not worried about any of those aspects. I train with some of the best fighters here in Albuquerque and in the world. I’m not worried at all. I’m gonna fight my fight so at the end of the day, he has to be prepared to adjust to what I throw at him.

Matthew: You said that Daniel Cormier is your cousin, I didn’t know that. What’d you think of his performance last weekend?

Melvin: He looked great. He looked real good. He’s another guy that’s continuing to look better every fight. I was very close to him for a while, we lost contact over the years. He just got into Strikeforce cause he was doing the last Olympics so a lot of guys are starting to see that. That there’s no money in the Olympics. As far as retirement plans for College Wrestlers and wrestlers coming out of High School, the only career you have after wrestling right now is MMA. You can make some substantial money if you put yourself to work and if you get the right people behind you, you can make some good money in this business and have a life after you’re done and retired from something.

Matthew: Just a couple more questions, the UFC is set to return to Louisiana in September. Would you want to fight in New Orleans?

Melvin: At first I wanted to. I begged them to fight but unfortunately it’s too close to my fight next weekend. The card is already matched. I looked at the bright side of it and I put it together in my head. I will go home to watch the fight. They’re gonna bring me in as a special guest which I was gonna be home anyway. I’ll go down and watch the fights and try and take my family to the fights for the first time. I’ll still be in camp, I’ll still be in Albuquerque. I want to fight the following month in October in Houston. If I can get on that Houston card after beating Roller, then my family can come over and watch me fight in Houston. So that being said, I can actually enjoy the fights at New Orleans without having the stress of cutting weight. You’re really out of your element when you have to worry about cutting weight and the actual fight, you’re not really going to enjoy it. So for me, I’m kind of happy that I’m not fighting in New Orleans, but it’s gonna be cool for me to go to New Orleans and still get to enjoy the benefits of being there as a superstar fighter in the UFC.

Matthew: I guess one of my last questions would be, you seem to be a pretty big lightweight. What do you usually start camp at, how’s the weight cut going, and what are you at right now as far as your weight?

Melvin: My weight’s always good. Right now I’m still 170 a week out, I’m still 20 over. It’s good though, it’s not fat. I’m real lean right now. Everything right now is water so right now for the next week or so starting today, I’ll start pulling water out of my body. By the time I make it to Vegas on Tuesday I’ll be only 10 over. So right now everything is on schedule. I haven’t done anything different that I haven’t done the last five years. I have switched things up in the past but right now, I’ve been real confident in the way I’m cutting weight and I’m very confident in the way I put the weight back on. I’ve been feeling great when I step in to battle in the cage. Right now, everything’s on target. I’m eating right, so that’s a good thing too. Normally I can still eat McDonalds and stuff like that but I’ve really been focused on my diet of not splurging and not cheating my diet. Right I’m maybe 32% water.

Matthew: I guess my final question would be, when you do make weight, what’s the usual food before the fight?

Melvin: My sponsor Harvey Sharp from Training Two Rounds, he’s a long time friend. He’s been sponsoring me since I was a kid. He goes to all my fights and he normally takes me and my wife to a three course dinner. The last time he was with me, it wasn’t fight for the troops, he wasn’t with me. But the fight before that when we were at Vegas at MGM, we ate at this restaurant, it was Steakhouse. The night of weigh-ins, I try to just stick to pasta and chicken. I try not eating red meat till after the fight cause I don’t want to upset my stomach, I just want to get carbs in me so I’m more of a pasta kinda guy. Right after weigh ins I’ll eat a lot of pasta and chicken. I save the steak and red meat for after the fight.

Matthew: Melvin, I appreciate the interview. Good luck next Saturday and I’ll probably be at that New Orleans show. If I run into you I’ll buy you an Abita.

Melvin: Hahaha thanks man.