Strikeforce lightweight champ Gilbert “El Niño” Melendez (19-2) has been very vocal about his desire to fight the best in the UFC now that both promotions are owned by Zuffa.
He and head coach Cesar Gracie, both feel that there are currently few challenges within the Strikforce 155 lb division, and hope UFC President Dana White can begin matching Gilbert with some of that promotions best before too long.
Melendez has won five straight, and is ranked as the number two or three lightweight in the world among various mixed martial arts websites. He earned a convincing first round TKO win over Tatsuya Kawajiri in April, and will likely meet the winner of a potential matchup between K.J. Noons vs. Jorge Masvidal.
Speaking to MMAWeekly.com, Melendez and Gracie both talked about finding opponents outside of the Strikeforce promotion to find challenging opponents.
“I really do not believe that,” Gracie answered when asked if there are contenders left in Strikeforce for Melendez. “And the reason I can say that is I’m looking at the talent pool they have in there, and I don’t see who they’re going to bring up.
“Guys that are winning are guys like (Shinya) Aoki and we’ve seen that fight. It was five rounds of Gilbert completely dominating the guy and beating him, and I don’t think other guys can even get past Aoki. You’ve seen Gilbert dominate Josh Thomson, and Thomson just recently lost to (Tatsuya) Kawajiri, and then Kawajiri comes over and just gets crushed, no pun intended, by Gilbert Melendez. So for exciting match-ups, I think we’re going to have to go outside of Strikeforce.”
“I’m hoping that Dana (White) and these guys understand that also, and make the dream match-ups that the fans really and truly want. We need to see these guys fight Gilbert Melendez over there.”