Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thomson go to war (Photo Gallery)
In what was without a doubt one of the best fights of 2009, Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thomson absolutely went to war for five rounds last evening during “Strikeforce: Evolution” in a bout that resembled a real life twenty-five minute version of Rock’em Sock’em Robots.
When it was all said and done it was Melendez who had his hand raised in victory via unanimous decision; Extracting revenge on Thomson for a prior defeat, grabbing the Strikeforce lightweight crown and setting up an inevitable rubber-match between the two in the process.
Below is a series of photos from the epic battle courtesy of Strikeforce and Esther Lin (click on any pic to enlarge):
Cory Brady is the managing editor of FiveOuncesOfPain.com, along with being a regular feature writer with Ultimate MMA Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/corybrady
| All posts by Cory Brady
Fight of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ps. Easily the best show of class by any fighter I’ve seen after a fight…..but Thomson only lost because he wasn’t 100%
I probably have to point out that the last bit was sarcasm, or else people won’t get it.
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one of the best shows StrikeForce has put
and perhaps one of the best fights of the decade
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Gotta be a rubber match with these two. Great fight and great fighters. 5 more rounds please!
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I agree with FightTrends. There has to be a third fight. And it was a very entertaining fight from start to finish.
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Would love to see gilbert fight Aoki and Hirota, and Josh to fight Kawajiri and Noons first though.
Rounds 11-15 would be awesome from these guys.
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Wait a minute I take that back. I d rather see either of them fight Roger Huerta right now. Preferably Thompson vs. Huerta.
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It was a great fight. It will be interesting to see how Aoki goes against the SF elite. Is JZ around still? Huerta vs JZ would be awesome too. Anyway it is going to be a very watchable LW division.
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edub, i was thinking Huerta/Thompson would be a great fight
was an entertaining fight alright, best two north american lw’s outside the ufc for sure, and yes i think they would both hold their own against the cream of the ufc
gotta give props to Josh for being pretty much inactive for almost 2 years then going into a 5 rounder against a fighter like gil
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That was Fight of the Year.
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not sure if i’d peg it for fight of the year, but the fifth round was certainly one of the my favourite rounds of the year so far
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That was the fight of the night… made me think twice about switching stations ( no I don’t have Tivo/ DVR) good fight!
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