Gilbert Melendez showed incredible toughness making it all three rounds with Jeremy Stephens at UFC 215 on Saturday night despite largely competing on one leg.
Stephens absolutely battered Melendez’s lead leg from the opening moments of the fight, which caused a ton of swelling on the former Strikeforce champion’s shin and calf.
As time ticked away, Stephens continued to target the leg and Melendez went down to the canvas several times during the fight after eating a kick from his opponent. While he was definitely hobbled and barely able to put any weight on the leg, Melendez gutted his way through all 15 minutes to make it to the end of the fight.
On Sunday, Melendez’s wife Keri showed off a picture of what her husband’s leg looks like just 24 hours later and it’s definitely not for the squeamish.
Hey All. Everyone is asking about Gilbert's leg. Here is a pic today. He is doing A ok. Thank you to all for the support. We feel the love pic.twitter.com/VQpNj7JlTO
— KeriMelendez (@KeriMelendez415) September 11, 2017
The good news is according to Melendez’s wife is that the new UFC featherweight is doing fine physically regardless of the gnarly appearance of his leg.
Unfortunately the loss to Stephens on Saturday night dropped Melendez to 0-4 in his past four bouts in the UFC as well as falling short in his debut in the featherweight division.
