Gilbert Melendez
Gilbert "El Niño" Melendez (born April 12, 1982) is an American mixed martial artist who has fought at Featherweight and currently fights at Lightweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He is a two-time Strikeforce Lightweight Champion and former WEC Lightweight Champion. He also competed in PRIDE FC, Shooto, and Rumble on the Rock. Melendez holds the distinction of being one of a select group of fighters who have ever been ranked #1 in the world in two weight classes in MMA, among the likes of Anderson Silva, Dan Henderson, Randy Couture, Kazushi Sakuraba, and BJ Penn.
Melendez was nicknamed after the infamous El Niño storm that wrecks havoc across the Pacific Rim. It was given to him by Japanese broadcaster describing his fight-style and the manner in which he stormed through the Shooto Featherweight division.
Background
Melendez is from Santa Ana, California, and wrestled at Santa Ana High School. Melendez always enjoyed combat sports and competition, but did not start training in MMA until after college when he was introduced to the sport by his good friend and MMA fighter Jake Shields. Melendez attended San Francisco State University and was studying in liberal arts, he anticipated becoming a teacher but did not finish his college education and get a degree, on account of training for MMA and working outside of college. He has stated that someday he plans on finishing his college education. Before becoming a professional fighter, he worked as a waiter and he also had a job at a Fairtex gear shop, which would later be one of his sponsors.
