Melvin Guillard’s Motivation For Bellator 159: “Get Fully Paid”

Melvin Guillard spoke with MMAjunkie about his fight with David Rickels at Bellator 159 and more. Some highlights are below:

Guillard still has that tenacious edge to him, though. He’s built a reputation as a formidable knockout artist, and going into a must-win situation at Bellator 159, which airs on Spike from Kansas Star Arena in Mulvane, Kan., he wants to make weight, deliver a highlight-reel knockout and go home with a full payday.

On his motivation for the fight: “My motivation (for this fight) has been to make sure I get a full paycheck. My last three fights in a row have not been a full paycheck. I’m looking forward to get a full paycheck this fight. I also look forward to smacking the (expletive) out of Rickels, and hopefully if he had a girlfriend, I’m going to smack her on the ass, and I’m definitely going to smack his mom’s ass.”

On relocating his training camp: “I just got the (expletive) out of Florida – I took my ass to Denver. I was in Denver for four months, I left the wife behind. … I’m just kind of over these gyms. Everybody wants to control the fighters with mandatory practices and, ‘You got be here for that.’ At the end of the day, none of these gyms pay fighters; fighters pay them. So they need to realize we work at our own schedule, our own pace. We don’t have to be teammates with every-(expletive)-body, either,” he continued. “I’m kind of over these big teams trying to control me. I’m going to do my career my way so that in the end I can always say I did it my way.”

On his experience: “I’ve seen everything. I am one of the most experienced fighters still competing. It’s guys like him who have to worry about me. … I see me knocking him out, whether it’s knees, elbows or punches. The only thing that I can see that continues to be the same is me getting my hand raised at the end.”