Melvin Guillard’s 2 time bare knuckle rival addresses Guillard’s retirement
Melvin Guillard has recently called it a career in combat sports after going out on a win with an Irish bare knuckle legend who fought Melvin Guillard twice weighing in on that news. That fighter in question was Jimmy Sweeney who reflected back to his pair of gloveless bouts with Guillard in 2017. Those clashes came at BKB 6 and BKB 7 in championship affairs that saw Sweeney notch two impressive wins over former UFC vet Melvin Guillard.
When touching on his thoughts on Guillard’s retirement after he earned a win that snapped a lengthy losing skid, Sweeney said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Like 11 years or something. Like 11 years, 11 fights, something mad, some mad losing streak. But fair play to him, you know. Melvin was one of those guys, he’s very mouthy, you know what I mean? He talks a lot of trash and it’s documented. It’s on video that we were having; we nearly had a fight outside and a fight in a restaurant back in the day. With that show, we weren’t even fighting each other, you know. We weren’t even fighting each other.”
“Just; it just went mad. Again, we weren’t fighting each other. On the second occasion, we had an altercation in a restaurant, it was just mad. There was all my people. There was a couple of guys from; obviously we’re professionals and in bare-knuckle, you’re not going to fight like that. I think later that night we actually spoke, and you know what? He was an absolute gentleman when you get to know him right. A very, very nice guy. But after that, I think I punched the head off him twice. But it is what it is.”
Melvin Guillard and Jimmy Sweeney’s path toward building respect after hectic altercations
Addressing their prior friction from years ago and touching on where the two stand now with each other, Sweeney quipped [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Yeah. A lot of respect from what I got off him. I could only go on how they are with me, and after the altercations, we put everything aside, and I became good friends with him. Even to this day, I will still like and comment on his stuff or he comments on mine, stuff like that, you know what I mean?”
Describing what it was like going from the head games of fighting to now having mutual respect after all was said and done, Sweeney stated [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Yeah, it was good. Like I’ve said to him after the altercation, like there was a good few of our boys there, and one of our boys said to him after, he goes, “Do you ever watch that movie Snatch?” And he goes, “Yeah, yeah.” He goes, “Well, we’re the real-life travelers. We’re the real-life Snatch.” Like, we’ll just put you in a boot and he goes oh what, man? [laughs]. Nah, it’s all cool, man.”
