What do men with power want? More power.
Such was the case with an overconfident Melvin Guillard, who found himself strangled out of title contention by Joe Lauzon during the main card of the UFC 136: "Edgar vs. Maynard III" pay-per-view back on Oct. 8 in Houston, Texas.
"J-Lau's" rear naked choke, which came after he stunned "The Young Assassin" in the opening frame, earned him a $75,000 "Submission of the Night" bonus at the UFC 136 post-fight press conference.
All it earned Guillard was a slice of humble pie. Coach Greg Jackson (via Sherdog.com) explains:
"It was not sticking to a solid plan of taking somebody apart. [It was] just kind of trying to finish it with one big shot. You need to learn those lessons. You need to learn those lessons early on. I think that with Melvin, he was doing very, very well hitting everybody and hurting them. The big puncher can kind of fall in love with the punching power, and I think Melvin learned a valuable lesson and is going to come back stronger for it. He was just upset. We talked about getting back to where we were and climbing up again and not letting it stop us and just learning from what we did wrong that night and making sure we don’t do that wrong again."
Guillard was oh-so-close to a title shot and has now created an immediate vacancy that became even more substantial following the announcement that Gilbert Melendez would remain in Strikeforce for a fight against Jorge Masvidal.
It's unlikely that "J-Lau" will assume his former opponent's spot in the 155-pound pecking order, but it definitely narrows the field. Guillard was one of the names at the top of a very short list that also includes the winner of Ben Henderson vs. Clay Guida at UFC on Fox in just over a month.
So how about it Maniacs, now that Guillard is out of the running, who do you like as the next man to challenge Frankie Edgar for the promotion's lightweight title?
Fantasy matchmakers, let's hear what you've got.