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<h3><a href="/go=news.detail&gid=453908" target="_blank">
What Gritz said to Guillard on the mat
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<p>Melvin Guillard landed at the world's #2 league and was given the enviable perk of choosing his opponent to fight in the main event, in his debut. 'The Young Assassin' selected the unheralded Division II wrestler Brandon Girtz.</p>
Guillard was a 3-1 favorite, but be careful what you wish for.
Girtz took Guillard down with impunity, and in the second round, it got worse when this happened: dinthomasatt Dear Melvin Guillard's hand, You sure picked an awful time to break. #bellator
In a recent interview with John Morgan and Ken Hathaway for MMAJunkie, Gritz related that he had a little conversation with Guillard down there on the mat.
“I told him right away that was a bad decision,” said Girtz. “He learned it in that fight. He even said – like with the fifth takedown – he said, ‘Man, screw you.’
“I said, ‘You shouldn’t have picked me.’ And that was all said right in the middle of the fight.”
“He was tougher than I thought. I mean, to tell you the truth, I’m very confident in myself and always have been. I thought I was going to finish him, especially being on top that whole first round. In the second round, I thought I was breaking him, and he kept coming. He’s a tough dude. And he hit me with a nice 15-piece combo there at the end.”
Girtz has now won two straight, and four of the last five.
tom gunning - You mean to tell me Melvin Guillard lost a fight in which he was out-grappled? Stop the fucking presses.
LOL!
to be honest, i don't recall seeing Melvin get ragdolled like that before.... he used to be blazingly fast, but he's clearly lost a step. and with his fight history, that's expected.
King Mo fan - Melvin had so much potential a few years ago if he would have just had a good ground game, or at least a Liddell style to keep it on the feet
i dunno.... he was fast, strong and built like a bodybuilder, but he didn't beat many top fighters.
obviously i have no idea what his training was like, but i suspect he would have done better to maintain his wrestling and building a cardio base. he relied so much on striking, that it wasn't too hard to gameplan for him...
i've never seen Girtz fight, but he looked great against Guillard. 4 or 5 slam takedowns, and he looked quicker to the punch, as well. he almost lost the fight by that 3rd round screwup, though...
WattMell - Both were unimpressive. I don't care to ever see the Gritz dude fight again if he's gonna be a Shields-Fitch love child.
We were watching entirely different fights apparently. He didn't lay n pray at all.
Yes he did, and it was boring as hell.
He spent nearly the entire first round in side control, never once looking for a mount, or a submission outside of a lazy key lock here and there. Never bothered landing anything damaging while on the ground either.
He was all about control, which is fine....but don't say "I'm surprised I didn't get the finish" when you never bothered looking for one.
WattMell - Both were unimpressive. I don't care to ever see the Gritz dude fight again if he's gonna be a Shields-Fitch love child.
We were watching entirely different fights apparently. He didn't lay n pray at all.
Yes he did, and it was boring as hell.
He spent nearly the entire first round in side control, never once looking for a mount, or a submission outside of a lazy key lock here and there. Never bothered landing anything damaging while on the ground either.
He was all about control, which is fine....but don't say "I'm surprised I didn't get the finish" when you never bothered looking for one.