Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez (18-2) can feel the pressure building in the crusade to put him, and Bellator lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez, into the same cage.
In a recent interview on the “Savage Dog Show” on the Sherdog Radio Network last Wednesday, Melendez was very upbeat about making the fight happen.
“I think we’re getting warmer. You guys are talking about it. Everyone’s talking about it. Someone’s going to get backed into a corner. We’re going to figure out why it’s not happening eventually, and that person’s probably going to be cornered in and they’re probably going to have to give in. Because everyone seems like they’re up for it. Bjorn, Scott, Eddie and I. So there’s something going on where we can’t come to an agreement. I think eventually it’s going to come out, and with media and everyone talking about it, I think we’re getting a lot closer and a lot warmer…If I’m still with Strikeforce, I think that fight does need to happen. The only other way is if I move on and somehow I’m in the UFC fighting out there. If I beat Josh Thomson again, if I beat Shinya again, it’s not really going to do nothing for my status or to make my spot go up. … That’s why I want this fight.”
Melendez last appeared at the Strikeforce: Nashville event last April where he soundly defeated DREAM lightweight champion Shinya Aoki by unanimous decision.
HT: Sherdog.com for the transcription.