Melvin Guillard - Seven Defining Moments

Covering Melvin Guillard over the past five years has never been dull. In and out of the Octagon, “The Young Assassin” has survived a rollercoaster ride that would have crippled lesser men. Covering Melvin Guillard over the past five years has never been dull. In and out of the Octagon, “The Young Assassin” has survived a rollercoaster ride that would have crippled lesser men. But he’s still standing, still fighting, and headlining January 22nd’s Fight for The Troops 2 card in Texas against Evan Dunham. But before we look back at how Guillard got here, here’s a quote from 2006 which captured how the Louisiana native was looking at his fight career.

“I have the attitude that I’ll fight anybody because when I’m old or I’m gone, I want to be remembered as the Muhammad Ali of MMA,” said Guillard. “I want to be known as a legend, I want to be on the wall of the UFC Training Center. That’s my goal now. I want people to say, ‘Man, that kid was a damn good fighter. He left it all in the ring and fought with heart and determination.’ It’s not about the money to me. Yes, I want to make a living doing this and I want to become rich being a fighter, but I’m not fighting for the money. I want to be remembered in the ages. That’s my biggest thing.”

Josh Neer - UFC Fight Night - January 16, 2006
Result – Neer Wsub1
A veteran of the local circuit, Guillard got introduced to the world through season two of The Ultimate Fighter in 2005, and after living through Hurricane Katrina, he made his UFC debut at welterweight against hard-nosed Iowan Josh Neer. Guillard was impressive, dominating the action and cutting Neer. It appeared that the fight was about to be stopped when Guillard surprised everyone by taking Neer down. Moments later, Neer pulled off the miracle comeback, submitting Guillard via triangle choke.

“I only took Neer down to try and work that cut some more so that they would stop it,” said Guillard after the bout. “Had I known that (that the doctor probably would have stopped it between rounds), I would have just stayed on my feet and just kept swinging for another minute and a half. He couldn’t hurt me.”

“I was upset, but I wasn’t confused about the loss because I know, being a fighter, that the fight’s not over till it’s over,” he continued. “I’ve seen guys get the crap beat out of ‘em for ten minutes of a fight, and then in the last five minutes they pull a rabbit out of their hat. That’s the nature of this business; it’s a chess match.”

Rick Davis – UFC 60 – May 27, 2006
Result – Guillard KO1
Four months after the Neer bout, Guillard was pitted against unbeaten Rick Davis in the UFC 60 opener. This one wasn’t even close, as Guillard – back to his natural fighting weight of 155 - drilled Davis with everything but the ring stool. A left hand put Davis down for the first time 1:20 into the round, and seconds later a right hand sent his down face first, ending the bout at the 1:37 mark. The win made an immediate statement that if you wanted to throw hands with Guillard, you did so at your own peril. Davis never fought professionally again.

Joe Stevenson – UFC Fight Night – April 5, 2007
Result – Stevenson Wsub1
The win over Davis and a subsequent body punch knockout of Gabe Ruediger four months later got the buzz going pretty heavy on Guillard, and in response, the UFC put him in a UFC Fight Night main event against his Ultimate Fighter castmate Joe Stevenson. The bout barely got started when Stevenson rocked Guillard, took him down and submitted him. 27 seconds was all it took. What was worse that Guillard, already dealing with the death of his father, tested positive for cocaine after the bout and was suspended.
“After getting suspended I hit rock bottom even harder,” said Guillard of life after the Stevenson fight. “I was in a bigger depression and I was mad at myself, but I was even more upset because I felt like I had embarrassed my family. I didn’t care what people thought about me, and I’m still like that – I don’t care about the negative talk. I get on the internet and I see all the slander – they made a little video clip and I laughed it off, but on the inside it hurt because I hurt my fans, I embarrassed my family, and I embarrassed the UFC. And of all the people, I never thought it would have been me to embarrass the UFC. The sport has enough negativity towards it, and we’ve got to be good role models for the sport. So I took all that negativity and turned it around.”

Guillard would still take some time to dig out of the mess he had gotten himself into, but in an ironic twist, a couple years later he would became a teammate of Stevenson in the Greg Jackson camp in Albuquerque, and it was “Joe Daddy” who helped him close the holes in his submission game.

Rich Clementi – Lsub1 – UFC 79 – December 29, 2007
Result – Clementi Wsub1
“I’ll never squash it. I tried to squash it before with Rich. I have no more room for squashing anything with him.”

There have been bad blood grudge matches in the UFC before, but none had such venom attached to it as the UFC 79 bout between Guillard and veteran Rich Clementi. It was so bad that you actually wondered whether the fight was going to break out even before the bell rang officially on Saturday night. Thankfully, the two kept things in check until fight night, but when things got going, Clementi showed a veteran’s poise and Guillard let emotions get the best of him. It’s not what he expected to happen.

“My emotions flying in this fight will work to my advantage,” he said before the fight. “My mom will be there again, I’ll have my family with me, and of course my dad will be there with me in spirit in the ring with me, so I’ve got a lot of positive energy going into this fight.”

Clementi finished Guillard via rear naked choke 4:40 into the first round, and Guillard’s star was falling fast.

Dennis Siver – KO1 – UFC 86 – July 5, 2008
Result – Guillard KO1
Three months after the loss to Clementi, Guillard scored a three round decision win over Eric Regan in a non-UFC bout. Four months after that, he was confident and back in the Octagon to face tough German fighter Dennis Siver. Guillard was too fast and hit too hard for Siver, and in just 36 seconds he was back in the UFC win column and back on the radar as a fighter to watch in the lightweight division.

Gleison Tibau – W3 – TUF9 Finale – June 20, 2009
Result – Guillard W3
It won’t go down as Guillard’s most exciting win or even most impressive, but his three round split decision victory over Gleison Tibau may be judged as his most important. Sure, Guillard would win a shootout on the feet more often than not, but everyone and their brother knew that if you could get him to the mat and work your submission game, this was his Achilles heel. But not on this night, as he befuddled the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, showed off his underrated wrestling game, and gutted out a tough win against a tough opponent. Yes, he would get submitted in his next bout against Nate Diaz thanks to a rookie mistake in the second round, but in the Tibau fight, he made it clear that those mistakes would be few and far between in the coming months and years.

Jeremy Stephens – W3 – UFC 119 – September 25, 2010
Result – Guillard W3
Now a member of the Greg Jackson camp in Albuquerque, Guillard bounced back from the loss to Diaz with victories over Ronys Torres and Waylon Lowe. In Jeremy Stephens, he was going to face a fighter who was willing to stand and trade with him until someone fell down. It made this UFC 119 bout the early favorite for Fight of the Night, but when the two got down to business, it was Guillard throwing a wrench into the works by using counters, movement, and quick kicks to keep Stephens off-balance throughout the three rounder. When it was over, the disciplined Guillard had another victory – this one via split decision – and the lightweight division had another contender. At long last.

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Defining "The Phenom"

Vitor Belfort is truly an international mixed martial arts star. But he is synonymous with the UFC, the organization he first competed in back in 1997. A well-traveled veteran who has seen action everywhere from the United States to England, Japan, and his native Brazil, Vitor Belfort is truly an international mixed martial arts star. But when you talk to fans about “The Phenom”, it’s clear that despite his travels, he is synonymous with the UFC, the organization he first competed in back in 1997.

On February 5th, almost 14 years to the date of his Octagon debut, Belfort will look to become only the third man in history to win UFC titles in two weight classes when he faces middleweight king Anderson Silva.

Should he win, the bout will join the eight defining moments below…

Tra Telligman – February 7, 1997 – UFC 12
Result – Belfort TKO 1
Few, if any, knew about Brazil’s Vitor Belfort when the fresh-faced 19-year old made his UFC debut against the Lions Den’s Tra Telligman at UFC 12. 77 seconds after the opening bell though, people couldn’t stop talking about his fast hands and fight-altering power. Belfort would win another bout later that night, in 43 seconds over Scott Ferrozzo, and when he destroyed Tank Abbott in less than a minute three months later at UFC 13, the legend of “The Phenom” was born.

Randy Couture I – October 17, 1997 – UFC 15
Result – Couture TKO 1
Entering this bout at UFC 15 in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, Randy Couture was a virtual unknown in MMA, with two UFC wins under his belt and an impressive resume as a world-class wrestler. Belfort was another story completely. The 20-year-old wunderkind had three UFC victories under his belt, with each of his wins being frenetic displays of Tyson-esque speed and power. No one expected Belfort to lose anytime soon, let alone to the soft-spoken 34-year-old. Couture threw a wrench in the works that night though, stopping Belfort at the 8:16 mark and changing the face of MMA forever.

“I was totally out of focus,” Belfort told me a few years later. “I wasn’t training, I was thinking I was the greatest and that nobody could beat me.”

Wanderlei Silva – October 16, 1998 – UFC Brazil
Result – Belfort TKO 1
With countrymen Belfort and Wanderlei ‘The Axe Murderer’ Silva both possessing the ability to end a fight in an instant, you just knew that their fight at Ultimate Brazil was going to end explosively. Well, it did, with the 21-year-old Belfort stopping his local rival with a dazzling array of strikes that sent the Sao Paulo crowd into a frenzy. Silva, just two years into his career at the time, would soon go on to greatness in Japan. For Belfort, 6-1 at the time, it was to be his last UFC bout for three years, as he proceeded to sign a deal with PRIDE in Japan that saw him win four of five fights from 1999 to 2001, with his only loss coming to Kazushi Sakuraba.

Chuck Liddell – June 22, 2002 – UFC 37.5
Result – Liddell W3
After four straight wins in Japan over Gilbert Yvel, Daijiro Matsui, Bobby Southworth, and Heath Herring, Belfort was scheduled to return to the UFC to face light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz on September 28, 2001’s UFC 33 card in Las Vegas. It was the UFC’s first event in Nevada, and the first since the organization got back on pay-per-view cable TV. But it was not to be, as Belfort pulled out of the fight due to injury. Nine months later, Belfort was finally back in action, this time on free cable television via Fox Sports Net against Chuck Liddell, and instead of dazzling the new fans of the UFC, it was ‘The Iceman’ who made his first major move towards superstardom with a three round decision win punctuated by an oft-replayed knockdown of Belfort late in the fight.

Randy Couture II – January 31, 2004 – UFC 46
Result – Belfort TKO 1
After getting back in the UFC win column with an impressive TKO of Marvin Eastman at UFC 43, Belfort was granted a rematch with light heavyweight champ Couture, the first man to beat him. And even though Couture was coming off dominating wins over Liddell and Ortiz, he was once again going to be facing a younger, more explosive opponent, making the UFC 46 main event a compelling one.

Adding to the drama was the fact that Belfort’s sister, Priscila, had been kidnapped on January 9th (she was later tragically murdered), leaving the recently married Belfort in an understandable state of emotional distress. He soldiered on through training camp though, telling me before the fight, “The only reason I’m here is because God wants me here. He’s given me the strength. If not for that I wouldn’t be here; I’d be very depressed. I’m praying for God to continue to give me the strength until the day of the fight. Then I can go back and hopefully I can have good news of my sister. I’m supposed to go to a honeymoon, but my honeymoon is not going to happen.”

And once the bout commenced, it was over almost as soon as it began.

The two briefly sparred with each other, and then Belfort grazed Couture with a straight left. The two clinched against the fence, with Couture in obvious discomfort. Referee John McCarthy intervened, bringing in ringside physician Margaret Goodman to examine Couture’s left eye, and she recommended that McCarthy call a halt to the bout at the 49-second mark, a stoppage that crowned Belfort the new champion.

The culprit that ended the contest was a gashed lower left eyelid of Couture, a cut caused by a seam on Belfort’s glove, and that exposed the eyeball and required immediate surgery. It was a bittersweet victory for the new champion.

Tito Ortiz – February 5, 2005 – UFC 51
Result – Ortiz W3
Less than seven months after defeating Couture, Belfort was stopped in three rounds by ‘The Natural’ and surrendered his 205-pound belt. His next bout in the UFC would be against the man he was supposed to face in 2001, Tito Ortiz, and the three rounder was worth the wait.

Early in the first round, Ortiz quickly drove Belfort to the fence, but the Brazilian was able to escape and soon followed Ortiz across the Octagon with a quick flurry of strikes that put the former champion on the defensive.

Ortiz weathered the storm though, and locked up with Belfort against the fence, controlling the pace with knees and his superior strength. Referee John McCarthy broke the two at the midway point of the frame, and after the two veterans warily circled each other, Ortiz shot in with punches, only to get countered well by Belfort, who put Ortiz in trouble with strikes to the head. Ortiz quickly looked for a takedown to get out of trouble, and wound up in Belfort’s guard with a bloodied nose for his trouble. In the final minute Ortiz pounded away with forearms to the head, looking to exercise his trademark ground and pound as the horn intervened.

Round two saw Ortiz looking for the takedown again, only to be foiled by Belfort’s sprawl, and later by a guillotine attempt that turned into side control by the Brazilian. Ortiz kept his cool as he tried to work his forearm shivers, but Belfort responded with hard forearms of his own to the head, much to the delight of the crowd. Belfort continued to pound Ortiz as McCarthy watched the action closely, but the game Ortiz refused to give in against “The Phenom”. With 1:30 left in the second round, McCarthy stood up the fight, but Belfort quickly pulled Ortiz back to the mat, which was a poor move as Ortiz gained the upper hand in the final seconds with strikes to the head until round’s end.

Ortiz confidently began the final round with a high kick that was deflected by Belfort, and followed up with another takedown. Working with Belfort pinned against the fence, Ortiz’s ground and pound left the tired Brazilian with little chance of escape, though a standup with under two minutes left gave Belfort a brief reprieve – so brief that Ortiz was again in his face within seconds, pinning him against the fence before yet another takedown just before the bell.

And though many felt Belfort had done enough to win, the judges rendered a split (29-28, 29-28, 28-29) verdict for Ortiz.

Matt Lindland – January 24, 2009 – Affliction – Day of Reckoning
Result – Belfort KO 1
Discouraged by the loss to Ortiz, Belfort took his show on the road and outside of the UFC, competing for four different organizations over the next four years. But after his 2006 loss to Dan Henderson in PRIDE, the now 30-year old Belfort started to show the maturity and focus he had lacked consistently over the previous years. Three straight wins over Ivan Serati, James Zikic, and Terry Martin followed – two by knockout – and in January of this year he was matched up with former UFC middleweight title challenger Matt Lindland. The end came just 37 seconds into the bout, and Belfort had scored a spectacular knockout over ‘The Law’, one of his most impressive finishes since his early days in the UFC. But there would be more fireworks to come.

Rich Franklin – September 19, 2009 – UFC 103
Result – Belfort KO 1
In September of 2009, Belfort made his long-awaited return to the Octagon, but he didn’t stay long, earning Knockout of the Night honors for his first round finish of former middleweight champion Rich Franklin. It was the performance all of Belfort’s long-time fans were hoping for, as he showed off the deadly hands that made his name back in the late-90’s. Add his maturity and experience to the mix, and when it was announced that he would be facing Anderson Silva for the 185-pound crown, it became the one fight everyone is looking forward to in early-2011. If he wins on February 5th, he will come full circle in his career, fulfilling the promise he has always shown glimpses of.

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