Gilbert Melendez has positioned himself to become one of the most innovative influences on the future of MMA. Melendez has learned the sport literally from the ground up, and he is a world-ranked fighter. His comprehension of what MMA is becoming combined with his synthesis of styles makes him one to watch right now, and for years to come. The El Nino Training Center is his own specially formulated training space, where he combines the work of his mentors with his own ever evolving training methodology. As I walked through the doors of the El Nino Training Center for this interview, I sensed I was entering an MMA science lab.

What biographical information do you feel is most relevant to the person you are today?
I’m from So Cal. I grew up in a predominantly Mexican neighborhood, in Santa Ana, California, I went to Santa Ana high school, which is really good for wrestling. The discipline I learned out there had a lot to do with what I do today. I went to SF state on a wrestling scholarship and that’s where I met Jake Shields – he’s the one who got me into the sport, explained to me, that there’s other stuff besides The UFC…I’ve kind of been a disciple of his for 6-7 years until I got to the point where I opened this gym here (Melendez has his own training gym: El Nino Training Center), and I’m still with Jake and my teammates all the time, but I reinvented myself and became my own man, doing what I’ve got to do to succeed in the sport.


How do you describe your training, your relationship with Jake Shields, Dave Terrell, the Diaz brothers, Turbo Fairtex and Cesar Gracie?
Over time it’s hard to keep the team together but Jake, Nick, Nate, and I have been solid for years. There are a couple of other guys in the group; we’ve stayed serious and challenged each other for a long time. It has impacted our games tremendously. Now we excel at wrestling and jiu-jitsu. A good jiu-jitsu guy usually can’t make me tap out because I’ve trained with the best jiu-jitsu guys already. If a wrestler can take me down, I tap him out because I have jiu-jitsu technique. We are a real team, we started from scratch together, we’ve grown together and we compliment each other.

Your background is in ground fighting – wrestling and jiu-jitsu – however, 10 of your 16 wins were from stand-up, 5 were by decision, with only one win by ground submission. How do you explain that? It’s cool!
It is definitely a cool thing! I feel like I’m a mixed martial artist. My base is wrestling and ground and pound. I usually ground and pound, I just finish them there. I’ve always been a fan of stand-up. Who doesn’t want to knock a guy out? I was just never good enough to do it. Now I feel like I’m improving and I like it. I like to sprawl, which is wrestling. And I like to brawl, which is boxing, and if I do take you down, I’ll do that too. I’m trying to become a complete martial artist.

Do you think your ground fighting background has allowed you more insight into the stand up game than you might have otherwise had?
Yes definitely, I also feel like I’ve always been willing. There was a point when I realized I needed to work on my stand up. My next fight was against this guy Olaf Alfonso in the WEC for the WEC Title. So I decided to test myself and stand a little bit. Obviously I’m not going to be an idiot and get caught up emotionally, but I’m going to test it, work with it, and eventually work it in. It was something I gradually worked on and improved on. My shoots came more easily, the more my opponents worried about getting punched, the more they worried about being in this type of dog fight, boom, that’s when I could shoot.

How would you describe your fight game?
Mentally I never quit, and I like to keep coming forward. I would rather get knocked down than fight to survive. Technically I like to try to break the guy mentally.

Tell me about opening the El Nino Training Center (2555 Phelps Ave., San Francisco, CA 94124 (415) 859-9885, home of the Scrap Pack)
I opened up this place for myself. I wanted to have a studio. I do accept students, and I do charge. I don’t hold a large number of classes, and I workout in most of them. I train a lot. I saw Floyd Mayweather – he has his own gym – he worked out the way he wanted, when he wanted to, with his training partners. When I lost my fight to Josh Thomson, I had to totally get myself straightened out and take my training more seriously. I also take on students who are up for challenges. I have people of all skill levels here. The guys (and women) here are willing – willing to get out there and get their butt’s kicked, and go with the flow. We’re a tight family, but it’s definitely open for anyone out there who is willing to challenge themself, and practice with me and everybody here.

What more will you share about that Josh Thomson fight, and how it led you to open up this training center?
I trained hard for that fight, I went out there and did my best that night. After I lost to Josh I was depressed, really angry, and frustrated with myself. Not that I lost, but that I didn’t come in completely prepared. I don’t have a problem losing, but the fact that I wasn’t prepared, and I couldn’t perform to my best is what really pissed me off. My diet sucked, my training structure was off, the places I had to train at sucked, and my training partners were hard to get, Jake was hurt at the time. Things were frustrating me and I had to step back, I questioned myself: Am I going to be a guy who makes it to the top and is going to fall right back down, or am I going to be one of the best in the sport and try to do it? I said, “so why the heck not, let’s try to be one of the best.” I took a risk, I had my money from fighting and I lived in a crappy little place so I invested it in this. Now I have some structure. I have a better diet, a great training regime, and a perfect place to train. I still travel elsewhere to train, but now I have no excuses.

Are you hungry for a rematch with Josh Thomson?
Definitely, I’ve been waiting. It’s getting frustrating because he’s pulled out on me twice. I believe that he’s really injured, in fact, I think he re-injured himself recently. I didn’t have all the tools I needed when I fought him, I feel like things weren’t going my way, I could have pulled out but I didn’t. He’s hurt, I don’t know how badly, but I know he wants to fight me 100%. I wish he would have stepped up and fought me the first time, but now he’s really hurt. It’s losing momentum, because I think people wanted to see it, and now is like “I don’t even want to see those guys fight anymore.” But that aside, I still want to fight him no matter what. That was me on a bad day and he messed me up, if it was me on a good day it would have been a war.

Tell me a little about the Mitsuhiro Ishida situation; he beat you Dec. 31, 2007, and then you beat him this August at Strikeforce.
I went to Japan, and fought him on his own turf. There was that point in my life when I did hit number two in the world for a second when I beat his teammate Kawajiri. The UFC had us fight, and I had four fights, Josh Thomson and Ishida included. I came out victorious in two of the fights, but I didn’t feel like I was myself. I lost to Ishida by decision. I was in Japan, on their home turf. I understand how he won. I got offered the rematch a couple of years later, and he was on top of my list. I was asking for him when Josh was hurt. I got my revenge and I felt like I beat him every single second.

Its tough to quantify athletic potential, but in terms of your maximum capacity, how close have you come to reaching it, and how would you describe the feeling?
I’ve had about two fights where no one could stop me. It’s great to feel prepared like that. The training was on, the nutrition was dialed in, the taper was perfect, and it felt like the stars were aligned. I don’t know exactly why, but for some reason I just felt great. I try to keep that balance as much as possible, but I’ve only felt that twice out of all my 20 fights where I knew I had “it” and I was a beast. The other times I felt confident, but there was that deep breath; I was a beast but I felt like gagging a little or had quick nerves. I always try to perform to my maximum potential the day of the fight. I push my body to the limit. Is that my absolute maximum potential? No. It’s the most I can do that day. It’s a little out of my control. It is connected to the training, but sometimes I train perfectly and feel a bit off, other times I train perfectly and I’m completely dialed in. I can’t explain it.

Do you ever experience fear around fighting?
No, I accept that I’m fighting eight weeks out from the event. I think that people have a problem when they’re thinking – I’m fighting, I’m fighting, and the day of the fight they’re like, Oh man! I accept it. Sometimes I even giggle in the back of the room like oh man, this stuff is crazy. It’s unbelievable how far I’ve come. Fear, no, I mean, I’m always scared, I don’t want to lose, and of course I get nervous but there’s always that risk. The glory of winning isn’t worth anything if there is no risk of getting your ass kicked or losing. I’m not scared of nobody to tell you the truth, I’ll fight anybody.

Is there anything in life that scares you?
Being alone, not having my loved ones, my friends and family, being by myself. Even if I had all these championships and I didn’t have all these true friends or family loved ones it would be brutal.

What can you share about your family life?
I’m a fortunate kid. Everyone looks for reasons for a guy to be fighting. I have a great mom and dad, we weren’t wealthy but I was spoiled with lots of love. My parents were strict and they kept a tight leash on me. The junior high years in Santa Anna were when kids were starting to be in gangs, doing drugs, and drinking just like anywhere. My two sisters were professional ballet dancers for a short time; they were the stars in the early years. They’re married now, I’ve got two brothers-in-law and they’re really cool, Todd and Kyle. We’re a real tight family. My parents are still happily in love, and they brought me up really well. It took a minute for them to support me, but now my dad is the biggest fan. It was always “Stay in college, stay in college.” My mom still refuses to watch me fight live, she always comes to my events and stays in the hotel room and tells me “I’ll pray for you.” My family really loves it. I love what I do, but I also love the fact that it also brings joy to my family, and my family from California all the way to TJ. That makes me happy and it’s fun to share it with them. I also want to mention someone very special in my family and that’s my girl friend. She’s always by my side and plays a big role in my gym and training camp. She watches me fight and gets very nervous, but since I can’t look bad in front of her, I like her there. As for family, she is family to me.

The business of MMA – In your perfect world how would the business of MMA be handled?
MMA is at an interesting turning point. It’s a new sport, and the terms have changed a lot since the start. As a fighter I was ranked number one at 145lbs, and number two as a light weight at 155lbs. I used to sit back and think I was happy to get 10K or 15K in Japan, it was great at the time. Someone who does this 10 yrs down the road might be getting a million or two, so money-wise, I’d like to get pay per view buys, be in commercials, get some sponsors like Nike. That hasn’t been touched yet. When you watch MMA you watch the UFC, you are watching UFC fights. When you watch boxing, the fighter’s fight is referenced, the De La Hoya Fight, the Tyson Fight, rather than the league’s fight. I’d like to see that for MMA fighters. Its good for the fans, but not for the fighters. I think it will evolve to where I’m my own business and my business will put on an event with another fighter’s business and together we will sell out an arena. A lot of boxers do that. I’m not complaining though. Guys ten years before me had it worse, but I did start fighting in a barn for $250 a night and I do see young kids who are 3-0 or 4-0 complaining that they need to be getting 3K – 5K for a fight and I fought for $100 -$400 – a fight when I got started. It wasn’t until I got to Japan and was 10-0 that I even thought about getting 10K for a fight. It took forever for me to reach that point.

What is your long term objective in MMA?
My objective is to have a long and successful career

Where are you in your Strikeforce contract?
I like Strikeforce a lot, they treat me well. I have two fights left on my contract if I am the champion of course I will be re-negotiating my stay with Strikeforce. I really enjoying fighting for Strikeforce and if things continue to go this well for me and the organization I can see myself being a part of this organization for a long time.

Any word on your next fight?
My next fight is Dec 19, 2009. Against whom, I do not know but I am staying ready

What is your absolute favorite submission in MMA?
The rear naked!