Well, as much as a I utterly detest Josh Barnett, I am looking forward to this card. But mostly because I hope Cormier destroys the Baby Roid Assassin. Also, despite what most experts are predicting, I think Josh Thompson will give Melendez another tough fight. Thompson's all-around skills match up well with Melendez but he can't have cardio issues or he'll get crushed. The other rematch on the card, Mike Kyle vs Rafael Calvalcante, will hopefully be as much fun as their first slugfest. Its tough to call Kyle a top fighter because he's bounced around between 205 and HW and he's looked absolutely horrible in most of his fights at HW. That being said, the dude is undefeated at 205 and has solid kickboxing. He also has very good power at lightheavy. Main card (Showtime) Heavyweight Championship bout: Josh Barnett vs. Daniel Cormier Lightweight Championship bout: Gilbert Melendez (c) vs. Josh Thomson Light Heavyweight bout: Rafael Cavalcante vs. Mike Kyle Welterweight bout: Nah-Shon Burrell vs. Chris Spang Preliminary card (Showtime Extreme) Lightweight bout: Gesias Cavalcante vs. Isaac Vallie-Flagg Light Heavyweight bout: Virgil Zwicker vs. Carlos Inocente Light Heavyweight bout: Gian Villante vs. Derrick Mehmen Welterweight bout: Quinn Mulhern vs. Yuri Villefort Lightweight bout: James Terry vs. Bobby Green
What are these guys yapping on about Melendez being the best 155-pounder in the world? Not saying he doesn't have a chance to beat Hendo or Edgar but ranking him before them is stupid.
I want to see him climb the ladder in the UFC before going right for the Champ. Cromier is a special fighter that should be brought up carefully.
Man, great night. Barnett gets battered, bloodied and soundly beaten. Hopefully we'll never hear from him again. Doubtful, but I'll keep hoping. Personally I thought the Melendez-Thompson fight was a draw. However, the rounds Thompson won were far more dominant that those that Melendez won. To me, that should always mean THAT fighter gets the win.
Melendez has been overrated in large part because he dominated a very average Aoki. Gilbert is one of the top 10 LW's in the world but he's in the bottom 5 of that top 10.
Agreed, I've never got the hype behind Melendez to be honest, he seems solid but kind of average at top level. I would be very confident in picking Bendo or Edgar to beat him. And I thought Thomson won too.
Melendez deserves all the talk, he is one if not the best at lightweight. Thomson is to Melendez what Marquez is to Pacman. I didn't have Thomson winning but I did have it a draw.
Except Pac has great wins minus his Marquez. Melendez has nothing. Let's be honest the guy is top 10 at best.
Exactly. When you look at it today, the best win on Gilbert's resume is Josh Thompson. And then think about the fact that over the 15 rounds they've fought, Melendez still hasn't really proven he's better. Aoki and Kawajiri are DREAM jokes that look average elsewhere. The most impressed I've been with Melendez was his easy win over Masvidal. But Masvidal probably struggles to break the top 20 in the UFC lightweight division. I think Melendez CAN be a top 5 lightweight but he needs to be forced to improve. That won't happen fighting in Strikeforce.
Agreed, the situations are not really comparable, Pacquiao looks like a monster Vs everone but Marquez. I've never thought Melendez looked anything special at this level, just a good, solid fighter. Top 10 for sure, but the best lightweight? Absurd, he's done nothing to be in the running for that title, and it's not like he's looked beastly against the comp he has faced.
Agreed on all counts, including only being impressed Vs Masvidal. But yeah, it's not like Masvidal is a top 5 fighter. His best win is Vs Thomson, in a trilogy where I think Thomson won 2 out of 3, I think that says enough really. Ranking this guy as the #1 lightweight in the world is literally insane.
Back when TFK was doing the Fightbeat P4P list, I think TLC had Melendez in the top 5. It seems Aoki fans rated Melendez highly in order to justify the destruction of both Aoki and Kawajiri. In other words, the loses aren't so bad because Melendez is one of the best P4P fighters in the world. :: Wrong. The truth is that those DREAM lightweights, Aoki, Kawajiri, Alvarez, Hellboy, etc have all just been ridiculously overrated. Even Alvarez, who I think is the best of the bunch, showed against Chandler that he probably doesn't belong in the top 10 at the weight.
That old trick :: And yep, I like Japanese fighters in general, but Aoki, Kawajari are/were very overrated, and you're right, even Eddie would probably lose to any top 10 lightweight in the UFC.
melendez is still hard to beat. he fares well against the top UFC guys imo. dont really care for his style though. i'm more interested in seeing cormier move to ufc. he's by far the best most accomplished wrestler the world of mma has ever not counting kevin jackson's short and brief stint in the 90s.
I agree about Jackson, but I don't know that Cormier is much different than Askren in accomplishments.
I'm not sure about that. The UFC's Lightweight division is littered with very good or great MMA wrestlers. Melendez has never faced an MMA fighter with wrestling like Maynard, Henderson, or Edgar. In fact, Melendez had a tough time with Clay Guida way back in 2005 or 2006. And that version of Guida sucked compared to today's Guida. Likewise, he hasn't faced dynamic strikers like Pettis, Cerrone, or even Melvin Guilliard. You might be right. Maybe Melendez can do well. But I need to see him beat a top guy before I'll believe it.
yea we're gonna have to wait and see. never saw his fight vs. guida but i know that it was a split decision. too bad he's not going to ufc anytime soon. if he did, his first fight should be against guida, the trueest of lightweight gate keepers.
He's a bit better at it now, despite being stylistically the same. I think Pettis would beat him too.
cormier has medaled in international tourneys and was a better freestlyle wrestler. askren was very unorthodox, got away w/ a bunch throughout his wrestling career based on his freakish flexibility. he won the olympic trials in 08 w/ a similar approach, but didn't transition well when he went against the foreign nationals. but then again, askren also won the no gi grappling world championships, so i guess you could say they're about even. oh, cormier also won that defunct real prowrestling tourney (the same league mo lawal was on) if that counts for anything haha.
Pettis would be the best win on Gilbert's resume. On the other hand, if Pettis beat Melendez, it would still be a lesser win than beating Ben Henderson. That said, Pettis beats Melendez in my opinion. He's a more dynamic striker and his wrestling, both offensive and defensive is improving. I don't think Melendez could easily take him down and if they remain standing, Pettis delivers a kickboxing beatdown.
I think Melendez is a top talent and a match against anyone at Lw. I've got no problem ranking him in the top 5. Crushing Kawajiri like he did and withe washing Aoki was really impressive
Yeah, if you overrate the DREAM lightweight crew, then it probably makes sense to rank Melendez that high. However, all of them have looked average or worse outside Dream/Japan. But in reality, comparing apples to apples, Melendez can't distance himself from an average Josh Thompson. So it's tough for me to put him in the top 8 at 155.
