He never quite came right out and said it, but after his last fight, Gilbert Melendez needed to step away from MMA awhile in order to rediscover his love of the sport. The former Strikeforce lightweight champion is one of the game’s toughest customers, but the manner in which his last fight unfolded, where Jeremy Stephens used a relentless leg-kick attack at UFC 215 to send Melendez to his fourth straight loss, caused the latter to reevaluate his place in the sport into which he’s dedicated so much of his time. “It was a little more on, just, really reassessing everything for me as a fighter and why I’m doing it and how I’m feeling while doing it,” Melendez said on a recent edition of MMA Junkie Radio. “And after that fight, it definitely didn’t fit well, the performance, taking kicks that way and getting hurt that way. “I didn’t really tell anybody, but I thought to myself, maybe we try the life of not a fighter, maybe stay away from the madness. I’m not enjoying this job anymore.
Here is the original post:
UFC 239′s Gilbert Melendez rediscovered his love for MMA by stepping away – MMA Junkie