Melendez-Masvidal Official for December SF

http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/10/11/gilbert-melendez-vs-jorge-masvidal-official-for-strikeforce-in/

Got a couple threads about Gil, but figured this deserved its own

Quote :

Gilbert Melendez will have to wait a little longer to fight in the UFC.

Strikeforce announced on Tuesday that "El Nino" will in fact defend his lightweight title against Jorge Masvidal on Dec. 17 in San Diego, Calif. The card will take place at Valley View Casino Center, and tickets go on sale to the public on Saturday, Oct. 15.

Melendez met with UFC president Dana White over the weekend to discuss the possibility of unifying the Strikeforce and UFC lightweight title but no deal was reached.

"I just wanted to discuss my future with the organization," Melendez said Monday on The MMA Hour. "I just expressed that I want to fight the best."

Melendez (19-2) has won his last five fights in a row. He most recently defeated Tatsuya Kawajiri via first-round TKO at Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley, which also took place in San Diego.

Masvidal (22-6) is 2-0 since returning to Strikeforce, defeating Billy Evangelista and KJ Noons.

Also officially announced for the card is Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos vs. Hiroko Yamanaka for the Strikeforce women's featherweight title, Gegard Mousasi vs. Ovince St. Preux and local favorite KJ Noons is expected to meet Billy Evangelista.

The main card will air live on Showtime.

makes sense.

Bendo/Guida is a legit #1 contendor match. There is no need to rush Gil over.

Agreed. I want to see him fight for the belt but Bendo-Guida winner deserves a shot too (please be Bendo) and in the meantime he can stay active against a pretty dangerous guy in what should be an entertaining fight

bobbitt15 wrote:

Agreed. I want to see him fight for the belt but Bendo-Guida winner deserves a shot too (please be Bendo) and in the meantime he can stay active against a pretty dangerous guy in what should be an entertaining fight

Bobbitt and I are tuned into the same frequency today.

I hope Bendo wins also. Gil deserves a shot over anyone else right now but I can live with this. Masvidal earned this fight and it is gonna be a good one. If Gil wins you can't deny him the next shot at the title. I don't think Ben can beat Frankie anyway. He looked real good and I think he will beat Clay. I'm pretty sure Frankie will fight Gil next year. This SF card has some good fights on it. OSP is a badass dude. If he beats Mousasi he is an instant big name all of a sudden. I'm pretty sure that Japanese chick is the one I heard about here a few weeks ago. I have been waiting on Cyborg to fight so that is worth a watch. Noons vs the other Cyborg would be a real good slug it out fight. I wonder what the fifth fight will be?

bigbeastcardinal12 wrote:

I hope Bendo wins also. Gil deserves a shot over anyone else right now but I can live with this. Masvidal earned this fight and it is gonna be a good one. If Gil wins you can't deny him the next shot at the title. I don't think Ben can beat Frankie anyway. He looked real good and I think he will beat Clay. I'm pretty sure Frankie will fight Gil next year. This SF card has some good fights on it. OSP is a badass dude. If he beats Mousasi he is an instant big name all of a sudden. I'm pretty sure that Japanese chick is the one I heard about here a few weeks ago. I have been waiting on Cyborg to fight so that is worth a watch. Noons vs the other Cyborg would be a real good slug it out fight. I wonder what the fifth fight will be?

If he fights like he did against Jim Miller i think he can definitely beat Frankie.

Better he fights like he did against Bocek. If not for his ability to avoid submissions 100% of the time Miller would have finished him at least once.

So strikeforce still lives, I don't think they know what they want to do with that promotion yet, good fight for Gil, the #1 contender match is setup, take another fight stay active and see what happens in the #1 contender fight and eventual Championship fight, he could be facing the UFC lightheavyweight champ as soon as July, or August

Like I said this will be the very last SF unless Zuffa and Showtime cut an extension to put on one more fight card in January to finish the HW GP.

I thought they had until Feb

Why doesn't Zuffa send some guys down and keep SF on Showtime? They have two good shows left and they can keep it going as a feeder league. SF would get just as many viewers if it was a feeder league under the Zuffa banner. Retards!

bigbeastcardinal12 wrote:

Why doesn't Zuffa send some guys down and keep SF on Showtime? They have two good shows left and they can keep it going as a feeder league. SF would get just as many viewers if it was a feeder league under the Zuffa banner. Retards!

The disaster ratings and turn out for their last card suggest that is not true. They learned that being Zuffa's feeder league and being bled dry is not comparable to what they were doing before Zuffa took their best fighters.

Nope, SF 37 is the last card on contract for Showtime. After that Showtime has the option of extending their contract with Zuffa for another year, but they won't. You could get maybe one extra card added on to conclude the GP, but that it.

Beast is pretty obvious that Zuffa doesn't want Strikforce to stay afloat. If they want it to surive they would actually be marketing the events and not pulling fighters from the promotion ever other week.

bigbeastcardinal12 wrote:

Why doesn't Zuffa send some guys down and keep SF on Showtime? They have two good shows left and they can keep it going as a feeder league. SF would get just as many viewers if it was a feeder league under the Zuffa banner. Retards!

As if Showtime would want to feed a rival promotion on a bigger network.

https://ninjasplace.forumotion.net/t15145-strikeforce-melendez-vs-masvidal-december-17th

Bowl games start this weekend but they are the weak ass bowl games. I dig this card and think Jorge can make things interesting. Fodor vs Wilcox is a good opening fight.

The card is very strong and i'm looking forward to it...but SF has lost pretty much all it's buzz though. I can see this card drawing lower viewers than Barnett-Kharitonov did and i don't really see how SF is going to manage to deliver good ratings. Atleast not what they did when Strikeforce was independent.

I've already canceled Showtime months ago and given this weeks new about Strikeforce, am not regretting it still, nuff said.

KingsOwn19 wrote:

The card is very strong and i'm looking forward to it...but SF has lost pretty much all it's buzz though. I can see this card drawing lower viewers than Barnett-Kharitonov did and i don't really see how SF is going to manage to deliver good ratings. Atleast not what they did when Strikeforce was independent.

Well I think fact that college football(of any significance) won't be on tomorrow will really help out this card. So for that reason alone I think it does better then Barnett-Serg. But you are right, it won't do what it should/could. But hopefully things get better now that SF future is a little more clear. Dana is making promises, but we both know how little that means.

SF is cheap programming. They don't have to pull in a lot of viewers. The hardcores will watch, which is mainly what SF was always anyway. I'd be surprised if there's a big dip in the ratings

Kinda sucks that Wilcox vs Fodor isn't on the main card. I'd like to see how that plays out.

Yeah I'd rather see that than Noons-Evangelista. OSP-Mousasi is the most interesting fight to me

I'd prefer to see that than the squash Santos fight.