STRIKEFORCE MELENDEZ VS MASVIDAL DISCUSSION

Strikeforce is alive! Not only are they back with a Showtime title fight tonight, but Zuffa have also figured out a way to do a deal with Showtime to keep the promotion going into 2012. Great news for MMA fans.  Tonight's fights are live on Showtime at 10:30pm eastern time (they might be tape-delayed on the west coast).

Your prediction results and leaderboard ranking will automatically show up in any posts made here. If you want to embed your full listing of picks you can do that also.   Your picks, as well as a link to embed the image, and the top of the site-wide leaderboard will all be available in the right column on this thread.

Enjoy the fights and good luck in your predictions! 

REMINDER: No requesting of or posting links to illegal streams of the Showtime broadcast.

I think a rematch with Masvidal would be very fair. However it isn't going to happy Strikeforce and Showtime are obviously trying to make Melendez look better then he is. I know you guys may disagre with that statement but the way i see it the anouncers made the fight seem like Gil was just destroying Masvidal when he clearly wasn't, Strikeforce and Showtime in my opinion also tried very hard to not show how beat up he was, or even really give credit to all the shots Masvidal did land.

There really aren't many options for Gil in Strikeforce right now they way i see it there are 3.

1) Give Masvidal a rematch cause like @jaffa said neither guy did enough to win that fight decisively and Masvidal really do put up a hell of a fight.

2) Give Josh Thompson a rematch, they are 1-1 against eachother and even though Josh doesn't deserve a shot right now Strikeforce has done stranger things. I.e Giving Jardine a match with Rockhold, Or giving Noons a shot at Diaz when he didn't even win a WW fight to earn it.

Or 3) send him to the UFC and instead of being a big fish in a small pond let him be a small fish in the ocean.

Man did cyborg look manly tonight

Don't ever make Melendez fight some B-level guy again, that's a much better idea.

I think we just saw Melendez's last fight in Strikeforce.  Lets face it, Shotime's contract is expiring and I just can't see them continuing to feed Melendez JV fighters.  Masvidal put up a good fight, no doubt, but they are going to move him over to the UFC just like they did with Hendo, Diaz, and Overeem.  They've moved over every one of their champs and Melendez will definitely be next.  Who he fights next I don't know--I think Edgar would crush him, but I could see him starting out against a B fighter and if he does well then we'll see him get moved quickly to the top.

On a side note...I am so freaing bitter that I missed a perfect main card award with him going to a decision.  I had the first three perfect and had him with a decision and changed my mind to a Fourth Rd KO at the last minute because sportsbook had him +200 to decision...ugh...

@Justyn LOL MASVIDAL PUT UP A HELL OF A FIGHT? He threw a few jabs and some knees but thats about it. He came not to lose.

@Crimedawg, zuffa renewed it's showtime contract to 2014. UFC also made a deal not to poach any more fighters from SF. Melendez will essentially be a poster boy for SF and is stuck for a while.

@fglop Masvidal performed better than you say. It was very competitive, but Melendez was more effective throughout.

With Melendez stuck where he is the best hope is SF find a Michael Chandler type fighter. Just a young hungry fighter who can developed quickly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GsK1msP3Ok&feature=youtu.be  This is before  the fights, however Dana says Gilbert will be staying in Strikeforce.  I see one of two scenarios occurring.  Either Gil will stay in Strikeforce and they will bring over UFC guys that are still relevant to have super fights with him.  I would love  to see Gil fight someone like Maynard/Florian/Guida.  If that doesn't happen, we all know Dana has said before that he wouldn't bring Strikeforce guys over to UFC, and he ended up doing just that.  It could be possible he's waiting to see how the Cerrone/Diaz and Bendo/Edgar fights turn out before making any decisions with Gil.  The one thing I can almost guarantee won't happen, is that they will match Gil up with someone like KJ Noons or Fodor.  No one wants to see that and I'm going to give Zuffa the benefit of the doubt that they realize this.  I'm interested in seeing what direction they go in with this.  I would personally love to see Gil vs either Maynard or Florian.

Why in the world would UFC send a fighter to Strikeforce to fight Gil?

That makes so little sense it's ridiculous. Either bring Gil to the UFC and let him to killed or find someone else for Gil to fight.

why is everyone discounting Melendez so much?  

Just because a guy doesn't fight under the UFC banner does not mean he is worthless and can not compete with them.  The WEC fighters that a lot of people said couldn't compete in UFC are owning the dam octagon.  Melendez is not an easy out for anyone at 155.  I think last night he figured out early that Masvidal could not hurt him and he decided to box with him the rest of the fight.  There was not a 30 second stretch of that fight where Masvidal was doing anything that made me think he could do anything with Melendez.