Issue 032

December 2007

With a career path that resembles something part gun-for-hire, part ronin [a masterless samurai] Gilbert ‘El Niño’ Melendez has achieved a lot in his 25 years on this planet. 

With a perfect record of 13-0-0, he was the WEC lightweight title holder, a number one contender to the Shooto 65kg title, he fought in the Pride lightweight division and even found time to go to the ADCC World submission fighting championships. On top of all that, he most recently captured the Strikeforce lightweight title. 

So why does he stay so busy? Simply put; “The goal is to fight the best,” he says. “That is one of the main reasons I wanted to go to Pride. If you look at the top-10 rankings in the world, seven or eight were from Pride in that weight class. I thought it would be exciting to be a part of. You had Gomi, Sakurai, Kawajiri, Hansen, Aurelio… Of course I want guys like JZ, Sean Sherk, Aoki – guys I wish I could fight. With politics and organisations it is not going to happen. 

“I really loved and respected Pride because they made that happen. I think UFC is on the way to making it happen, I give them all credit, but Strikeforce has been good to me. I have a couple fights left. When my contract is up I’m going to go where I’m taken care of, but also where I can challenge myself. I still have a lot to prove. With Strikeforce coming up I don’t want to overlook them. I don’t want to be caught slipping at all.”

Also important to Gilbert is fighting in front of friends and family, something he can do when he literally lives a few miles away from Strikeforce’s San Jose base. “I’d like my friends and family to be able to see me and if it is not in town I’d like it to be on TV.” Strikeforce are currently working on this, with a TV deal in Europe primed for early 2008 with a deal for North America to follow shortly after, right around the time Gilbert’s contract is up. 

If you ask Melendez if he minds being called a “ground and pound fighter” Gilbert responds, “No, not at all. In the last couple fights I’ve been a stand-up guy, but originally that is what I did. I’m not the best but if my hand was better [he sports an injury at present] you’d see punch-punch-shoot, punch-punch-shoot. I think of myself as a jiu-jitsu guy and a wrestler, I like to be on top. Instead of just using wrestling to take down, hold guard, lay-and-pray, we are trying to use our jiu-jitsu to get in superior position and land more effective strikes. I use my jiu-jitsu to get into positions to strike, not positions to submit. The fights are more intense.”

Gilbert’s style was developed under former Shooto and Rumble on the Rock champion Jake Shields, owner of the Cesar Gracie affiliate in the Fairtex gym in San Francisco where they both train. Jake and Gilbert met in 2001 when they were both wrestling in college, and have been roommates ever since. “Jake taught me everything I know, and I have been doing a lot of stand-up with the Fairtex people. I have one of the best grapplers in the world grappling with me and pressuring me constantly. When the fight comes I just have to fight fifteen minutes with a guy my weight, it is almost rewarding because I get beat up every day for fifteen minutes with Jake.”

In addition to training with Jake or Nick and Nate Diaz from the nearby Stockton Cesar Gracie gym, Gilbert has also supplemented his training at American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose. “I need more training partners and need to challenge myself, so Jake and I have been travelling around and AKA is real convenient.” 

Gilbert and Jake don’t go to AKA as often as they used to, as the gym houses potential rival fighters. In fact it appears AKA’s Josh Thomson is most likely Gilbert’s next opponent. “I talked to Josh and it may not happen this year, but it is a fight we are looking forward to. Fighting Josh is something I do on a regular basis for practice. It is nothing I fear or look forward to.” 

Having fought in Pride, Gilbert was hoping that would be his chance to shine, but the demise of the company left him in limbo for a time. “I really thought Pride was going to be able to stick it out and not sell to the UFC and I guess I was wrong. All of a sudden it was gone. They wanted me to sign a contract over to the UFC.” Things didn’t work out with the UFC as Gilbert explains, “It was the terms and amount of say I had. I also had some obligations to fulfil with Strikeforce that I felt had to be done. I didn’t want to ruin those relationships I had made.” 

 “I don’t need fame, it is just respect from people to see what I’m made of and that I have skills. It is a little frustrating when I say ‘I’m a MMA fighter’ and people say, ‘you fight in the UFC?’ ‘No, I’m not in the UFC’, ‘then you’re not a fighter.’ That is the only thing that bothers me.”