UFN 19 Conference Call: News and Notes

by Anton Tabuena on Sep 14, 2009 11:28 PM EDT

The UFC Fight Night Live Conference Call ended with Nate Diaz being a no-show. Melvin Guillard was there, and he said there's nothing special about his opponent:

"As a fighter I think he's just an average fighter. When you talk about guys like Clay Guida, Joe Stevenson, Diego Sanchez, and myself [and] Gray Maynard. You get guys that bring something special to the game. Diaz is just one of those guys who won The Ultimate Fighter so people are going to talk a lot about him because he won The Ultimate Fighter, but as far as him bringing something special to the ring, I don't see anything special about his game."

Here are a few more quotable quotes from the UFC Fight Night Live Conference Call:

Headliner, Nate Diaz was a no-show on the teleconference because according to his manager, Cesar Gracie, Nate "just doesn't do that."
Melvin Guillard on Nate Diaz: "He has mediocre stand-up at best. My superior boxing makes a great fight for me if he wants to stand up... I wrestled 13 years... went undefeated in my high school career... I know for a fact I'm a better wrestler than Nate."
Melvin Guillard: "As a person (Nate) is a great guy... I don't think anything bad of him."
Melvin Guillard: "I'm hoping and praying after this victory I can fight a top 5 contender"
Melvin Guillard: "I've done a lot of strength and conditioning for this fight I haven't done in the past."
Spike's David Schwarz: "We'll be announcing plans for (Pride FC on Spike TV) shortly"

Updates from mmaweekly's twitter, quote from MMA Fanhouse

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.

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i was late by a couple of hours. I fell asleep in the middle of the conference call, around 3am here. haha.

weoweoweo .deviantart .com -- @antontabuena

by Anton Tabuena on Sep 14, 2009 11:54 PM EDT reply actions

Guillard has some brutal power in his punches

but if Diaz chooses to take Guillard down, he will. If it hits the ground, I’m pretty damn sure Melvin taps quickly, just like he has in any other fight against a decent grappler that brought him down. Melvin may have better wrestling (and then again, he may not, haven’t seen him use it enough to know for sure), but given how he loads up with everything on damn near every punch he throws, if Diaz times it right, he’ll take him down. Or Diaz could always attempt to grab a hold of Melvin and pull guard.

Either way, I expect Melvin to come out swinging, get taken down, and get tapped. I’m not a fan of the Diaz brothers’ antics at times, but both are very, very good grapplers.

by Ryjo on Sep 15, 2009 2:32 PM EDT reply actions