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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Yushin Okami - The Thunder Seven

On November 13 in Oberhausen, Germany, Yushin Okami returns to the main event slot for the first time in three years when he takes on Nate Marquardt at UFC 122. For the man dubbed "Thunder", it's an opportunity to earn a long-awaited middleweight title shot and add to his list of defining moments. Anderson Silva WDQ1 – Rumble on The Rock 8 – 1/20/06
13-2 as a pro, with his only losses coming against respected vets Amar Suloev and Falaniko Vitale, Okami made his second US appearance against a pre-prime Anderson Silva in Hawaii. Silva had made some noise on the international scene with five PRIDE appearances, but his 3-2 record in the organization didn’t exactly show off ‘The Spider’ who has been dominating the UFC since June of ’06. On this night in Honolulu, the Brazilian did look to be on top of his game, as he dominated the standup and tossed aside any Okami takedown attempts. Eventually, Okami got Silva to the mat, but just when it looked like the bout was going to get interesting in terms of ‘Thunder’ getting back in the fight, Silva finished the bout with an up kick. Unfortunately for him, it was an illegal move, and he was disqualified by referee (and future UFC fighter) Troy Mandaloniz. On paper, it’s Silva’s last loss, but Okami doesn’t see it as such. “The records say I won but I really lost the match,” he said. “But I believe because of this fight I've grown stronger. The next time I fight him things will be different. I am confident of that.”

Alan Belcher W3 – UFC 62 – 8/26/06
Three months after the win over Silva, Okami returned to Hawaii and lost a majority decision to Jake Shields. It would be his last defeat for over a year, and after two TKO wins in Japan, he made his low-key UFC debut against fellow debutant Alan Belcher, a late replacement for former middleweight title challenger David Terrell. The bout was punctuated by what can be best described as a bizarre front flip by Belcher while Okami rode his back in the third round, but other than that bright moment, it was all Okami, who pounded out a workmanlike three round unanimous decision and announced his arrival to the UFC.

Mike Swick W3 – UFC 69 – 4/7/07
With a 5-0 UFC record, The Ultimate Fighter’s Mike Swick was rapidly closing in on a middleweight title shot, and in front of his Texas fans at UFC 69, most expected him to move to 6-0. But Okami was poised and ready to perform, and he did just that, as he dominated Swick on the mat and grounded and pounded his way to a clear cut three round decision win. It was the fourth consecutive time (following Belcher, Kalib Starnes, and Rory Singer) that the Kanagawa native issued an opponent his first Octagon defeat.

Rich Franklin L3 – UFC 72 – 6/16/07
After Martin Kampmann was forced out of his UFC 72 main event against Rich Franklin, the next logical choice to face the former 185-pound champ for a shot at Anderson Silva’s crown was Okami, who brought a four fight UFC winning streak into the bout. Unfortunately for Okami, his patient style cost him, as Franklin shot out to a 2-0 lead on the judges’ cards. In the third though, Okami showed that he was ready for the best in the weight class, as he closed strong behind a ground attack that included a kimura that almost ended the bout. “It was pretty close; he had me a little nervous but I was able to pull out of it,” said Franklin, who earned the three round unanimous decision win and sent Okami back to the drawing board.  

Evan Tanner KO2 – UFC 82 – 3/1/08
Four months after the loss to Franklin, Okami returned with a three round win over Jason MacDonald, yet despite a stellar 5-1 record in the Octagon, fight fans were looking for more thunder from “Thunder”, whose only UFC stoppage came against Starnes at UFC 64. Okami’s response? An emphatic second round knockout of comebacking former 185-pound champion Evan Tanner at UFC 82. It was Okami’s most impressive UFC performance to date, as he dropped and bloodied Tanner in the first round and then finished him with a knee to the head in the second frame. After the fight, the soft-spoken Okami was classy as usual when asked about a rematch with Silva. "It’s up to the UFC," he said. "If they feel I am ready for a title shot, I’d be honored. If they want me to take on another tough opponent before getting a shot at the belt, then that’s what I’ll do."

Lucio Linhares TKO2 – UFC Fight Night – 3/31/10
Following the Tanner fight, Okami split his next two, beating Dean Lister and losing to Chael Sonnen. After the Sonnen fight, Okami knew that to break into title contention, he not only had to put together a win streak, but he had to do so in impressive style. In March of 2010, he got his first opportunity and he made an example of Brazil’s Lucio Linhares, punishing him with some of his best standup work to date en route to a second round stoppage. The victory sent a statement to the rest of the division that just when you thought all you had to worry about was Okami’s ground game, now he could knock you out standing too.

Mark Munoz W3 – UFC on Versus – 8/1/10
Elevated to the position of Japan’s Great UFC Hope, Okami could have been overwhelmed by such pressure, but on a night when countryman Takanori Gomi resurrected his career with a first round knockout of Tyson Griffin, the 29-year old continued his slow and steady rise to the top of the division with a three round split decision win over Mark Munoz. And while the win itself was important, also key was the fact that Okami showed the ability to handle a world-class wrestler in a way he didn’t in his loss to Sonnen nearly a year earlier. So with all his ducks in a row, Okami is back in a title elimination bout against Marquardt, and this time, he expects to get the job done and become only the fifth Japanese fighter (after Yuki Kondo, Caol Uno, Hayato “Mach” Sakurai, and Kenichi Yamamoto) to challenge for a UFC crown.

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TUF 12 Episode Seven Recap

It’s time for the final preliminary match on The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck, but when Dane Sayers and Sako Chivitchian finish taking care of their business, two fighters will be chosen for the Wild Card bout and a second chance at glory. After the official announcement of the Dane Sayers-Sako Chivitchian bout, it is revealed that Team GSP’s Spencer Paige is out of the running for the Wild Card bout after breaking his right hand in his loss to Nam Phan. The injury and his subsequent surgery will keep him in a cast for three months.

“It sucks that I’m out,” said Paige, “but everything happens for a reason.”

That leaves Team Koscheck’s Jeff Lentz, Marc Stevens, Sevak Magakian, Andy Main, and Aaron Wilkinson as the current candidates for the Wild Card bout.

Meanwhile, back in the gym, Koscheck continues his poking and prodding of Team GSP, now turning his attention to team medic Brad Tate, but then it’s off to the baseball diamond at Las Vegas’ Cashman Field for the traditional Coaches’ Challenge. This time, it’s a batting contest between Koscheck and St-Pierre for $10,000, with each member of the winning team earning $1,500.

Koscheck blasts out of the gate fast, with seven runs in the first inning to GSP’s three. Kos is even more impressive in inning number two with nine runs, but GSP, who had never swung a bat before this competition, puts seven runs on the board, closing the gap to 16-10 with one inning remaining. Koscheck closes the show in style though, with 18 runs to St-Pierre’s 0, and he emerges victorious 34-10.

“Georges, what happened today on this baseball field, get used to it,” said Koscheck. “Because come December, you’re gonna have the same feeling. Swing and a miss, swing and a miss again, BAP, I crack a home run. Lights out.”

Now it’s time for Koscheck’s win to translate to his team, and Chivitchian is motivated to do the job. It’s Sayers who draws first blood though as he sinks in a guillotine choke after a Chivitchian takedown attempt. After a few moments, Chivitchian escapes and starts firing ground strikes at his foe. Sayers fights his way back to his feet, but he remains pinned to the fence. With 3:25 left, Sayers breaks loose, but Chivitchian remains the aggressor with the exception of a late takedown attempt from the Team GSP member.

Chivitchian opens the second with a throw to the mat, some striking when Sayers gets up, and another takedown followed by ground strikes, making it clear that he wants to finish the fight strong. With three minutes left, Sayers is able to scramble to his feet, but Chivitchian continues to pressure him and keep him locked up against the fence. Eventually, Sayers reverses position and almost gets a takedown, but Chivitchian grabs the fence, drawing a warning from referee Josh Rosenthal. From there, Chivitchian simply keeps Sayers pinned, securing the unanimous decision win for the Armenian battler.

Sayers is still alive in consideration for the Wild Card bout, and now it’s time for GSP, Koscheck and UFC President Dana White to decide who will get a second shot at staying in the competition. And the winners are…Aaron Wilkinson and Marc Stevens.

With Chivitchian’s win, Team GSP finishes up the prelims at 6-1. Here’s how the teams look:

Team GSP
Michael Johnson 1-0
Jonathan Brookins 1-0
Spencer Paige – Eliminated on episode five by Nam Phan
Alex Caceres 1-0
Kyle Watson 1-0
Cody McKenzie 1-0
Dane Sayers – Eliminated on episode seven by Sako Chivitchian

Team Koscheck
Marc Stevens – Eliminated on episode six by Cody McKenzie
Sevak Magakian – Eliminated on episode six by Jonathan Brookins
Sako Chivitchian 1-0
Andrew Main – Eliminated on episode four by Kyle Watson
Nam Phan 1-0
Aaron Wilkinson – Eliminated on episode three by Michael Johnson
Jeffrey Lentz – Eliminated on episode two by Alex Caceres

For weekly recaps of The Ultimate Fighter, as well as fighter profiles, stay tuned to UFC.com.

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