Melendez aims to reinvent himself at featherweight
Gil Melendez: “I’m looking to reinvent myself and start fresh. I’m feeling OK. It’s manageable. It’s been tough.”
Gil Melendez entered as the UFC in 2013 as the Strikeforce lightweight champion, on one of the best contracts in league history, after bidding between Bellator and the UFC. El Nino fought twice that year, losing a Split Decision to Benson Henderson for the UFC lightweight title, and beating Diego Sanchez in the fight of the night. It was a great start.
But he fought just once per year thereafter, losing in 2014, 2015, and 2016, and failed a PED test. At 35, he hopes to restore his career, dropping to featherweight for the first time since 2005, and fighting Jeremy Stevens at UFC 215 on Saturday night.
I’m looking to reinvent myself and start fresh, said Melendez to MMAjunkie. I’m feeling OK. It’s manageable. It’s been tough. I’ve been trying to sustain it. One big heavy meal and boom, I can shoot my weight up. But I can sustain it the last few days. I like what I woke up this morning at, and I think I’m going to get there no problem. I can’t wait to rehydrate up and get a lot of food in me and feel fully charged.
I feel like the 1-4 doesn’t really represent it, what I’ve really done. It’s a bummer, and I could go off on how I feel like I beat Benson and how I beat Eddie and all that, and I could easily be 3-2 in the UFC. It is what it is. … I’m satisfied with what I’ve done, and I’m still doing what I love. I’m challenging myself, I’m cashing in a paycheck making money for my family. And though I’ve lost, I haven’t gotten dominated, I believe. I don’t feel like I’ve been knocked out. I don’t feel like I’ve taken a lot of damage. And I feel like I can still do this, and that’s why I’m here.
If I want to keep fighting I can keep fighting just because I did some stuff on paper that allows me to do whatever the hell I want. I don’t enjoy losing. It’s been close, and I feel like I’ve had some bad things. I don’t enjoy losing. I’m looking to go out here and win. I’m not really thinking about the future, but definitely if things don’t go my way I’m going to assess things a little bit more.
