Gilbert Melendez, who will be left to fight him?
Posted on May 8, 2012, 01:54 PM by Mike Searson
Gilbert Melendez (20-2) is scheduled to fight Josh Thomson (19-4-1) for a third time on May 19, 2012 in San Jose, California at Strikeforce 40: Barnett vs. Cormier.
The odds are favoring Melendez, and even though Thomson is coming off a recent victory, his last loss was to Tatsuya Kawajiri (31-7-2), whom Melendez had defeated in 2011.
The question becomes: What happens next for Melendez?
Dana White has gone on record saying that he wanted to bring Melendez over to UFC. White went so far as to attempt to arrange former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion B.J. Penn to face him in a Strikeforce event. Unfortunately it never came to fruition and Melendez is still in a contract with Strikeforce and Showtime.
With the UFC absorbing the vast pool of talent in the Lightweight division, worthy prospects to fight Melendez are drying up. There are always great fighters coming up in the ranks, but will any one of them prove to be a worthy contender?
Melendez told MMAWeekly.com that he wants to prove that he is Number One and part of that is: "beating everyone, every match-up. I think I can beat every style out there."
Melendez knows that talk is cheap and wants to show that he is the best lightweight fighter out there. Unfortunately, the San Francisco-based fighter is going to have to wait.
Comments
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If only it were as simple as that. How much do you think it would take for the UFC to buy El Nino's contract from Showtime? Apparently more than the UFC is willing to spend. So we wait...........
pettis or guida plz
HunterB...that would be ideal!!!!
Send over Pettis.
Unfortunately, Melendez ain't making to the UFC anytime soon.
Not being under contract with Showtime ; Gil is stuck. He's one of the few stars that they have left. It wouldn't be the smartest business decision to make. If Dana is making an attempt to export UFC fighters for Gilbert to be measured against; that means to me that the UFC won't be seeing Gil any time soon.
Exactly.
The whole situation is a prodcut of bad planning by Zuffa and Gil's management. They thought he was going to be able to be pulled over whenever. Instead Showtime put their foot down.
Eddie Alverez vs Gil would be awsome
What if he loses to Thompson next weekend
eddie alverez just came off a big win and a free agent, Pat Healy is 5-1 with strikeforce, put those 2 together for the winner of gil n josh. Strikeforce doesn't have much to offer Gil no more
Mike, then I guess we don't have to worry! haha
That could make things interesting with the Showtime/Strikeforce deal.
Wouldn't mind seeing him against Nate Diaz sometime though that probably won't happen for a while, if ever.
Azzkika you obviously dont know much about melendez or nate diaz if it evan crossed your mine that they could fight eachother...
Why, has Melendez joined the UFC now? I thought he was still in Strikeforce and Diaz is waiting for his title shot in UFC now . Maybe you lot wouldn't like to see them fight or realise if they ever did it would take a while if Melendez ever makes the jump to UFC.
You obviously don't give much thought into reading posts of others and assume childish ignorance rather than engaging in intelligent thought. But hey ho thats some lowkickers for ya. Shame there's so many prepubescent kids on here.
PS: It's sad when people have to break things down to such simplistic explanations to clarify for idiot trolls.
If he beats Josh again, he could always shadow box until his contract arrives 8))
The only thing that Gil can do is to keep beating everyone they put in front of him. Once his iron clad contract is finally up with Showtime, he could jump right into a title shot for the UFC.
So let's send Pettis over and see how well Gil matches up with him. Pettis is in a kind of Limbo right now anyway. This fight would keep Pettis active, and give Gil a chance to prove just how talented he is.
what happens if pettis wins? now his ufc title shot (lets face it thats the one that counts) is put off even longer and gilbert is still stuck in strikeforce, only without a belt. And we still debate on who the real 155 champ is.
So whens this whole showtime thing expire?
I dont mean just for Gilbert for all of strikeforce.
End it already and put em all under 1 roof so we can have at least 2 ufc events a month.
I have theory for his next opponent after he beats Josh... DW was watching the fights with none other than Eddie Alvarez who is nearing the end of his contract with Bellator and having lost the title there (and after beating Aoki) he doesn't seem to have a opponent or even "path" in the organization... I think it would be a good sign for Zuffa and since LW on the UFC is "full", why not get him to fight Melendez...? I think it would be a great fight and a great business move. Lets see if my theory comes to fruition... ;)
Send Guillard or Penn over.
ZUFFA tried like hell to send Penn to fight Gil, Penn mauled it over for a long time but ended up declining.
*mulled