Issue 058

January 2010

Gilbert ‘El Nino’ Melendez is one of the fiercest lightweight fighters in the world, and he’s got the biggest names from Japan in his sights. Time to batten down the hatches…  

Melendez didn’t get his nickname by accident. Anyone who has seen him fight will attest that the 27-year-old is like a force of nature in the cage, relentlessly assaulting his opponents until they can withstand no more and crumble under the pressure.  

The Strikeforce interim lightweight champion has fought the majority of his career in his home state of California and has always had a good following. Save for a trip to Hawaii in 2004, Melendez’s non-American fights have all taken place in Japan, but the San Francisco resident is starting to attract a lot of attention throughout the rest of the USA and the world thanks to the TV-time afforded to him by Strikeforce and their deal with Showtime. “It’s been a wild ride, I’ve fought all over the world. Scott Coker was very nice to let me go fight in Japan, but now I’m back,” he says with conviction. One of the stars of the San Jose-based promotion, Melendez has lost only twice in his career as a professional. One was a decision loss to Ishida (a loss he avenged earlier this year), and the other a decision to the sidelined Strikeforce lightweight champ Josh Thomson, who has been out since 2008 with a broken leg.  

Melendez is lucky. He literally lives in his gym, the El Nino Training Center, and is only a short way from the HP Pavilion where Strikeforce hold events that attract up to 18,000 people. Living so close to the venue has its benefits. “I have a little ritual before a fight. I get up, have a shower, warm up a little. My wife makes me some food and I go over to the stadium to fight.” Living in the gym enables Melendez to focus all of his considerable energy on becoming the best fighter possible, or, as he puts it: “I’m living the lifestyle that is necessary for me to become a champion.”  

Within seconds of talking to Melendez, you can’t help but be buoyed by the energy that pours out of him. He modestly describes himself as a positive person, and talks about his sport with an infectious enthusiasm. Should you meet him in the street, you’d wonder who this polite young man was. His day-to-day personality hardly hints at the monster he becomes in the cage.  

One look at Melendez’s record will give you an idea of the caliber of fighter he is. He has wins over everyone from Clay Guida to Kawajiri, and constantly hovers around in the top ten rankings. His intense, relentless fighting-style (as characterized by his moniker) has been honed in the best Bay Area gyms with some of the toughest sparring partners you could imagine. Melendez is a product of both the Fairtex Muay Thai academy and the Cesar Gracie school, and boasts regular training sessions with the likes of Jake Shields and Nick and Nate Diaz. “I travel about two to three times a week to get that top-level sparring. We’re all relentless and we all like to come out and fight. There’s no questions asked – we get in there and battle. Nick and Nate [Diaz] are relentless with their stand-up, relentless with their jiu-jitsu.”  

Melendez will point to Shields’ influence upon him as a fighter, as the two were daily training partners for many years, and Gil readily admits that Shields would kick his ass, but in a good way. “Every time I fight, I say to myself ‘well, he’s not as strong as Jake!’ For years I was in there with Jake every day, taking these beatings, getting my butt kicked. Now it only happens two or three times a week, and I get to improve my offense by being ‘Jake Shields’ on a few of my guys! I’ve improved because instead of being a guy who gets his butt kicked and weathers the storm, I bring the storm to practice – I found my balance.”  

California has always been a hotbed for MMA, and Melendez says he is blessed to be part of such a burgeoning scene. “Nor Cal has always been a fighter’s place, since boxing even. I grew up on boxing, there’s a lot of wrestling in California, there’s a lot of that one-on-one competition out here, it’s that atmosphere. Northern California is a big part of it, and we’re one of those teams who started together from scratch.”  

Raised in Santa Ana in Southern California, Melendez grew up in a somewhat rough area but had a normal childhood and was an athletic student. Coming from a good wrestling school, he learned elements of combat early in life, but some lessons were learned far from the classroom. “Me and my buddies would always meet up and put the gloves on, we’d be boxing and wrestling – ever since I was a kid. That was our sport of choice: Fighting! Even my dad would be the referee sometimes when we’d be boxing!” When Melendez made his MMA debut at 20 years of age, 

he had “over 120 wrestling matches and a bunch of backyard rumbles” under his belt, so he quickly established himself as a tough competitor on the local circuit, fighting on the pre-Zuffa owned WEC. “I was in college when I started fighting, and [my dad] wanted me to stick to college. He had trouble with me becoming a fighter at first, but he saw me fight live the once and now he’s my biggest fan, he’s in my corner and he’s there backstage with me everywhere. It’s been a fun journey; it’s been rough, but even when I didn’t make that much money I felt like I was a winner by getting a free trip to Hawaii! To make my rent and get me some food for the month when I was 21, that was enough for me.”  

The days of struggling for rent are far behind Melendez. One of Strikeforce’s top fighters and the owner of his own gym, he’s reached the stage where he can pass on his knowledge. His fight team, the ‘Skrap Pack’, are, in his own words, “ a bunch of pitbulls”. “I’ve got a couple of beasts that I’m breeding; they’re a bunch of pitbulls out here. I wanted a bunch of beasts who just keep coming forward. We’re taking it to the next level – that’s our style. We want to be known as the cardio gym. I don’t care if my boys don’t win, I just want their opponents to think, ‘Jesus Christ, that was exhausting, I never want to fight him again.’”  

As Melendez matured, he found that adjustments needed to be made to his fighting style. His two losses to Ishida and Thomson were, he feels, the result of being ‘gameplanned’. “I felt they kind of ran. Their goal was to lure me in. Both Josh and Ishida, they circled, circled and hugged, circled, circled and hugged. Their goal was to win a decision.” Since those losses, Melendez has altered not his training or his style, like some fighters, but his attitude towards fighting. “I’ve learned to be less of a lion and more of a rattlesnake, see my opening and take it. I want to be aggressive but a little more intelligent out there.”   

Strikeforce have partnered with Japanese promotion Dream and Melendez is confident that the new talent-exchange program will open the door to a set of exciting matches. “I think I can prove I’m one of the top fighters in the world. The fans will learn to recognize that as well. [Strikeforce] will give me the opportunity to show I’m one of the top fighters.”  

When you talk top fighters, you instantly think of the UFC. Does it ever bother Melendez that by signing with Strikeforce he is missing out? “That is definitely in the back of my head, every day, all the time. I want to prove that I am one of the best in the world, and I was nervous about that. I brought that point up with Scott Coker. How am I going to live with myself without trying to go to the UFC, getting that exposure? He convinced me with the TV time, Showtime, and he promised me he was going to bring me some top talent.”  

Asked who from Japan he would like to fight, Melendez is quick to reply. “Any of them!” he barks. But in particular I would love to fight Aoki, I would love to fight Joachim Hansen, I would love to fight Eddie Alvarez and I would love to fight JZ [Calvancanti]. Maybe I could fight some of those UFC fighters down the line, but I’m young in my career, we’ll see what happens.”