Josh Thomson Beats Gilbert Mendez To Win The Strikeforce Lightweight Title
“Josh was the better man today.  I did the best that I could do today." Gilbert Melendez

By:  Jeff Townsend, Boxing/MMA writer of Bayareasportsdrive.com 6-29-08

Strikeforce definitely knows how to put on an action-packed event and they did not disappoint the 7,488 fans that witnessed 12 MMA fights at the HP Pavilion in San Jose on Friday night, including 14 fighters that are from the Bay Area or are based here for their training.  Two title belts were on the line with the main event of Josh Thomson against Gilbert Melendez being the main draw of the evening.   

In the main event, Josh ‘The Punk’ Thomson (15-2, 41-2 overall) of San Jose, CA won a five round unanimous decision and the Strikeforce World Lightweight title against Gilbert ‘El Nino’ Melendez (14-2) of San Francisco, CA in a battle for the ages.  

Thomson had to overcome great adversity just to make it into the ring for this monumental fight.  He had undergone shoulder surgery in mid-January due to a torn labrum, he had not fought for eight months, he has experienced some deaths in his family recently and he came down with the flu and a staph injection in the weeks leading up to the fight.   

Thomson, trained by Javier Mendez at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, came out in the first round and appeared very loose and relaxed as the action began.  Thomson scored a quick takedown that pined Melendez up against the ring fence but Melendez was able to escape.  The fighters were in stand-up mode for the final minute of the round with few punches landed.   

The second round began with some good back-and-forth action before Thomson started to focus on keeping a good distance between himself and Melendez.  ‘The Punk’ started working his jab along with kicks to the body and low kicks to Melendez’s thighs.  He combined this with lateral movement in order to land some shots while avoiding Melendez’s big right hand.  Thomson confirmed this after the fight, stating “the whole game plan was to stay on the outside, make him reach and get a takedown.” 

Thomson caught ‘El Nino’ with a good knee in the second round which Melendez acknowledged after the fight.  “At the moment, you see a little blurry.  He had a little flurry that stunned me.”   Thomson’s strategy was clearly in action and now Melendez had to be a little worried about being caught with a knee to the head when coming in for a takedown.   

In the third round, Thomson landed some good shots to the head and body of Melendez, utilizing his incredible quickness and speed.  He seemed very focused on his defense and avoiding Melendez’s right hand.  However, he could not avoid everything and Melendez had his moments by landing some good shots. 

Thomson continued to keep a good distance from Melendez in the fourth round and when the fight went to the ground, he almost was successful with a rear naked choke.   By the fifth and last round,

Melendez, who was already looking frustrated, began to look visibly fatigued.   Melendez bloodied Thomson’s nose with some hard right hands but Thomson continued jabbing and landing kicks to the body.  Coupled with his lateral movement, Thomson continued to control the action and engage on his terms.    

At the end of the fight, all three judges scored the fight 50-45 for Thomson, giving him a complete shutout along with the Lightweight title.   The Compubox numbers confirmed this, showing that Thomson had landed 131 strikes to Melendez’s 66.  On top of that, Thomson was credited with six takedowns while Melendez had maybe one takedown.   

I interviewed Thomson two weeks before this fight and it was clear that he was very focused and training very hard for this showdown with Melendez.  All that hard work and dedication paid off for the new Strikeforce Lightweight Champion, Josh ‘The Punk’ Thomson.  

The co-main event featured Nam Phan (14-5) facing off against rising prospect and Muy Thai specialist Billy Evangelista (7-0, 4 KOs) in a three round lightweight bout.  Evangelista scored a takedown in the early going and was able to maintain the dominant position throughout the round.  Evangelista used his size and skill to stay on top of Phan and landed a number of good shots to Phan’s face.   

The second round started with Phan trying to land big, overhand right hands and a few of those big shots landed squarely on Evangelista’s jaw.   Evangelista tried for a takedown midway through the round and his quickness allowed him to again take Phan to the mat.  A big cut opened up on the back of Evangelista’s head and the blood started to flow onto Phan’s face while the fighters were on the ground.  However, Evangelista wasn’t able to inflict much punishment on Phan despite having the dominant position. 

The third round was a back-and-forth affair with Phan landing some hard right hands while Evangelista scored another takedown.  The judges gave Evangelista a split decision win, with scores of 29-28, 29-28 and 28-29 (Phan).  The crowd loudly booed the decision, feeling that Phan deserved the win.   

In a match-up for the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight (205) title, San Jose native Bobby ‘B-South’ Southworth (9-5) faced off against Anthony ‘El Toro’ Ruiz (20-11).   This was a rematch from their November ’07 fight which Ruiz won via a second round TKO due to a bad cut over Southworth’s eye.  Ruiz appeared to be in great shape since he came in at 203 pounds, two pounds under the weight limit.

Southworth was able to control the fight through his superior grappling ability and by maintaining a dominant position when the fight was on the ground.  Southworth’s strategy seemed to be solely focused on takedowns and to attempt submissions when he had the opportunity.  Unfortunately for the fans, he rarely threw any punches and seemed content to let the fight go to the scorecards.  At the end of the five round fight, the judges had it 48-47, 49-46 and 50-45, giving Southworth a unanimous decision and the title belt.

In the only female bout of the evening, Miesha Tate (2-1) won a three round unanimous decision over Cung Le protégé and San Jose native Elaina ‘Beef’ Maxwell (2-3).   Tate scored a takedown about halfway through the first round and then eventually locked in an armbar.  Tate was clearly putting everything she had into the armbar.  It appeared that Maxwell may have tapped out but the bell rang and the fight continued on.   Tate controlled the last two rounds with effective grappling, with Maxwell having her best moments in the third round.   

Raymond ‘The Real Deal’ Daniels made his MMA debut against Jeremiah Metcalf (9-4) in a three round middleweight (185) fight.   Daniels compiled a 18-0 record in the World Combat League, is recognized as the number one Sport Karate fighter in the world and is widely considered to be an excellent kickboxer.   Daniels had a few good moments at the start of the fight, almost choking out Metcalf in the early going.  However, Metcalf was able to mount Daniels soon thereafter and land a lot of good shots.  Daniels went back to his corner bloodied at the end of the round.  

Round two began the way the first round had finished with Metcalf taking the fight to the ground and getting in a dominant position.  Metcalf’s ground-and-pound was clearly tiring Daniels out until Metcalf’s rear naked choke forced Daniels to tap out near the end of the second round.  

Undercard Results

Chris Cariaso def. Anthony Figueroa via submission (rear naked choke) at 4:34 of round 2

Bobby Stack def. Jose Palaciso via a 3 round unanimous decision

Bryan Caraway def. Alvin Cacdac via submission (rear naked choke) at 1:39 of round 1

Cyrillo Padhillo def. Jesse Jones via 3 round unanimous decision

Jorge Interiano def. Travis Johnson via TKO due to the doctor stopping the fight at the end of the first round

Alexander Trivino def. Eric Jacob via submission (armbar) at :37 of round 1

Eric Lawson def. Jesse Gillespie via submission (rear naked choke) at 1:03 of round 1

Email Jeff with questions or comments at jtownsend@bayareasportsdrive.com