Gilbert Melendez is not scared of Anthony Pettis’ kicks, talks coaching TUF 20

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No. 1 ranked UFC lightweight contender and former Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert “El Nino” Melendez is set to return to the Octagon this December for his second crack at UFC gold when he takes on UFC lightweight champion Anthony “Showtime” Pettis at UFC 181.

Prior to their title fight, the two men coached opposite one another on the newest season of The Ultimate Fighter. TUF 20, which debuts tonight on Fox Sports 1 at 10 pm ET, is the first season of the show to feature solely women.

16 of the world’s best strawweights duke it out in the house, but a lot more is on the line this season than just a six figure contract with the UFC. In fact, all of the women on the show have already been signed to the UFC and make up the new strawweight division, but the winner of this season of TUF will be crowned the inaugural strawweight champion.

Melendez recently spoke with FightHubTV about his coaching obligations on TUF, and how difficult a task it truly was.

“What was unexpected was how time consuming it was”, Melendez told FightHubTV candidly. “It took a lot of my time away, but the whole experience was pretty cool.”

Unlike other seasons of TUF, all of the fighters depicted this season are professionals, which Melendez said made the process a whole lot easier.

“I’m lucky man,” Melendez said excitedly. “These women are fighters, they are the top in the world, so I was working with some professionals.”

Although the focus of the season is on the women strawweights, there is no doubt that a lot of eyes will be watching to see Melendez and Pettis feud during the show. According to Melendez, however, not much back and forth occurred between the two.

“It was tense, but we stayed on our sides of the room,” Melendez said when asked about his run-ins with Pettis on the show. “We didn’t really have too much to say and there was no reason to be friendly and fake it.”

Catch the entire Melendez interview in the video below as he has a lot more to say about TUF 20 and his upcoming title fight with Anthony Pettis.