Gilbert Melendez, the current Strikeforce lightweight interim champion, has strong ties to the Caesar Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy and trains regularly with Nick and Nate Diaz, Jake Shields and Caesar Gracie himself.

About a year ago, the highly decorated wrestler decided to open El Nino Training Center to create another great atmosphere for training and build a solid family of fighters known as the "Skrap Pack."

"The school is located in San Francisco in the Bay View area," Melendez explained to FiveKnuckles.com. "It has been open for a year now and is one of the first MMA dedicated gyms out there. I'm a wrestler first, so we do a lot of wrestling and grappling but there's stand-up and muay thai and we put it all together as mixed martial arts classes. There is a lot of MMA involved in every class. It's not all one dimension or focus in one area of fighting."

Melendez stresses that the new gym is not simply a money-making venture, but that he genuinely wants to create a gym for his training purposes that incorporates open-minded individuals who are willing to work together and challenge themselves. All skill levels are welcome.

"The main reason I opened this gym is for my training purposes, not to try to have a thousand classes, sign up as many members as I can, or make as much money as I can. Most of all, I wanted to create a great atmosphere for training and with people who like to challenge themselves and train hard. All skill levels are welcome, of course. People that are open-minded and willing to work together... just trying to create some magic here and create a family. If you want to be a weekend-warrior or want to compete, you have that option of taking it to the limit or just coming here and training with the best. We'll take on all dojo challenges and if anyone wants to come in and train, that's cool. If someone wants to be apart of the team, they have to earn that but we will take on anyone out there who's willing to work hard. If your a beginner, your going to be in the same class with me. I don't separate any of my fighters from everyone else. Your really going to get first hand experience rolling with me and the other pros here. I feel that's how everyone is going to get better. I mean were not going to sit here and beat you up, but more guide you and help you reach your goals. It's all skill level and we all work together."

El Nino Training Center Schedule:

• Classes run 4 days a week at 12:00 p.m. PT and 5 days a week at 7 p.m. PT.
• Mon-Thurs nights is muay thai, jiu-jitsu and grappling [grouped as our MMA classes]

"On Thursdays, I don't have a day class and what we do is travel to other dojo's," Melendez explained. "We rally up all the people who train here. Some who don't even fight and some who do tournaments. We go to Jake Shield's in Berkley, CA and some days we go to Caeser's. I keep Tuesdays and Thursdays open for traveling. Next week we could go to Caesar's where we'd meet up with the Diaz brothers as well as Jake [Shields]. All my boys travel together and we do...