Melvin Guillard had the rare opportunity to handpick his opponent at Bellator 141, and he chose Brandon Girtz, a relatively unknown former NCAA Division II wrestler.
Big mistake.
In his own rendition of “Hit Me Baby One More Time,” Girtz took down Guillard and hit him over and over again in a Friday night bout that played out like a broken record.
Takedown, ground-and-pound, takedown, ground-and-pound—Girtz had Guillard stuck on the set of “Groundhog Day” with no conceivable means of escape.
Fans were reminded in fairly lopsided fashion that there are no easy fights at the highest level, even for a former UFC lightweight contender. During an interview with MMAjunkie.com, Girtz claimed he had a short conversation with Guillard during the fight:
I told him right away that was a bad decision. He learned it in that fight and even said—maybe it was like the fifth takedown—he said, ‘Man screw you.’ I said, ‘You shouldn’t have picked me.’ That was all said right in the middle of the fight.
The fight wasn’t necessarily flawless for Girtz, who nearly faded in the third round. Even with a broken hand, Guillard came close to mounting a comeback, but Girtz’s superior wrestling helped him earn the biggest decision win of his professional career.
As for Guillard, it certainly wasn’t the debut he envisioned when signing with Bellator after being granted a requested release from World Series of Fighting.
His two-fight stint with the WSOF didn’t go over so well. He missed weight in both fights, including a lightweight title bout with Justin Gaethje, and he never saw eye-to-eye on things with the WSOF brass.
The loss to Girtz puts Guillard at 3-6-1 in his last 10 fights.
