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Bellator's Keri Taylor-Melendez: I'm 'not just Gilbert Melendez's wife'

Keri Taylor-Melendez was a fighter and martial artist before she ever met her husband. And she has no doubt she'd be in a similar position now if she and Gilbert Melendez, one of the best lightweight fighters in the world, never got married.

The first conclusion some MMA fans came to when they heard Bellator signed Taylor-Melendez over the summer was that it was only because of her (hyphenated) last name. That thought has entered Taylor Melendez over the last few months.

"The people who know us know that before I met Gilbert I was fighting," she told MMA Fighting.