Melendez vs. Thomson III, Feijao vs. Kyle likely for May 19th

Awesome

Shocker---- Thomson is hurt and will be out of the fight

bobbitt15 wrote:

Shocker---- Thomson is hurt and will be out of the fight

Sauce?

Bam Bam?

Bam Bam or Barboza, since no one "in the mix" seems to want to cross over.

Keep Melendez away from Healy, keep them all away from Healy.

Barboza is suppose to fight a week later anyways. I say move him over.

If true, Healy, Ronny Torres or Alexander Sarnovskiy would be okay replacements on short notice I guess. But really Pat Healy is the only viable option.

maybe theyll just push the bout to july

That's a little late notice for someone who cuts as much weight as Healy does

They should just move up JZ. He is fighting on the card anyway.

Cesar Gracie
‏ @CesarGracieBJJ
According to Strikeforce @GilbertMelendez vs @JoshThomson is a go despite rumors

In the dawning hours of arguably the biggest Strikeforce card this year, rumors have flown around regarding possible injuries to one of the athletes fighting in the lightweight title match. About a week ago, rumblings that Josh Thomson had suffered a serious knee injury started making their way across Twitter feeds, bringing to mind the question, 'Will The Punk be fighting on Saturday?' In a quick TapouT Radio interview, Josh discussed his feelings on how the MMA media handles rumors, and gave some insight to these final days leading into his third outing with lightweight champion, Gilbert Melendez.

Frustration With MMA Media

There's no injury, everything is good. I tweaked my wrist and I tweaked some of my other body, but nothing bad. There's always little injuries going into a fight, but nothing that is going to take me out of it.

The thing that upsets me the most, is when the media, or whoever they are, come online, and let's just say a guy did have an injury, but the media guy guessed wrong. He's like 'Oh yeah, he hurt his wrist'. and let's just say his wrist was kind of bugging him, but he guessed wrong, and it wasn't anything too bad. Now that puts out a little bit of a target, and could end up basically affecting the guy's fight. At least verify with the camp, or just say, 'Hey, is there an injury?'

Star-divide

Maybe the media will learn that if you do things like that for the fighters, you'll end up getting more interviews and coverage later on down the road. Maybe you'll get the inside scoop on something later on versus just throwing something out there.

It kind of rubbed me the wrong way. It's just typical of the low level of MMA media stuff, where they automatically just jump the gun because they want to release this story, without ever verifying anything. It's just kind of gotten old, and after years and years of dealing with it, it kind of boiled over for me.

You know, I'm always injured, so when am I not hurt is something that's always just bugging me [laughs]. Seriously though, if something had happened to my knee, and somebody just went and threw that out there, now I've got my opponent knowing something is hurt. That kind of rubs people the wrong way, I think.

The big majority of MMA media are not journalists. They're just fans that picked up a pen and started writing. That's the problem with it. A lot of these guys haven't gone to journalism school, and a lot of them haven't developed any real relationships with the fighters. They take the most negative things in the article, I mean, the guy could have said a thousand nice things about his opponent, but they pick the one negative comment to post. Maybe that sells, but later on, I'll be thinking, 'No matter what I say, this guy is just going to write whatever the hell he wants.'

The thing that was written about me said, 'Oh he has a torn PCL', but if you have anything torn, you wouldn't even be contemplating the fight. Even if there was an injury, at least give the fighter a chance to pull out of the fight, or at least confirm that there is an injury.

I understand that it's up to the media people to break the news first, but the best part about it all, was how some of the media guys, especially this idiot that was on there. He gets on there (Twitter), and after I've denied it, says, 'I know I'm right. I've confirmed with three sources. I'm right and you're wrong. You're going to get your ass kicked on Saturday, anyway.' And I'm thinking, 'This is a guy that just wants to drop some information, whether it's true or not.' That's just so typical, I think, of the MMA media.

These people are quick to say, 'Oh you're washed up. You're a has-been', but do they know I was fighting in the UFC back in 2000, when there was only five shows a year, and you knew you were the top fighter in the world. What does that tell you? Don't be disrespectful just because you're stuck behind a keyboard. You've got to calm down dude. Just slow down with your negative crap.

It drives me insane to see guys like this just trying to slam fighters. It doesn't matter even if you're a kid on the undercard. At least that kid is trying to fulfill his dream. He's trying to do something that he really loves doing. You can't say that about 99% of the United States. Maybe the journalists are trying to fulfill their dreams, as well, but they just need to go about it a little bit differently.

Thoughts On Upcoming Fight With Gilbert Melendez

Really, this just comes down to me implementing my gameplan. In the second fight, I totally got away from the gameplan. I went in there pretty cocky and arrogant. After I felt like I won the first round, I felt like I could just go in there and do it again.

It was going OK in the second round, but then I got clipped and dropped. From there, I felt like I was fighting from behind. When you have a fighter like Gil, with that kind of confidence, he stuck with his gameplan and was able to win.

In this fight, I've got to come in with that same type confidence and arrogance, but I've just got to be smart about it. I think it has to be all about me following the gameplan, sticking with it, and making the needed adjustments here and there, from round to round.

A five round fight is a long time. The two of us have fought a lot. Ten rounds is no joke, and not to mention all the rounds that we trained with each other before we fought. We know each other pretty well. I know he's got a big right hand, and there's a lot of talk that he's going to try and open up and take some risks.

With all the talk about Gilbert being number one, and I do believe he is the number one guy in the world right now, especially with what's going on in the UFC. They don't really have a settled, number one guy there. They haven't really settled their championship there. That really leaves Gil to slide into that spot and be the number one guy. With that being said, he's really got to produce, with all that talk about beating all the best or fighting all the best. Now he needs to prove it.

If he has a lackluster five rounds with me, it doesn't really show well for him, because I'm not ranked in the Top 10. When you look at the rankings, I really feel bad for the guy, because he knows it's going to be a tough fight. I think this is going to be different. He dominated Aoki. He dominated Masvidal. I'm the last guy he hasn't dominated. It's not going to be an easy fight for him.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/5/16/3023678/strikeforces-josh-thomson-voices-frustration-with-mma-media#storyjump

Quote :

"I have no interest right now, you know what I mean? Everyone was like, 'Let's close the book on this,' and we did. I won two out of three and it is what it is. People can be mad and people can say whatever, but it's over in my book. I am looking for new things, you never know what happens in the future. Maybe it's going to come around again, and if it does, so be it."

"Pat (Healy) is a guy that is pretty deserving, it's just hard to say that I am fighting a top ten guy. I think he's a tough dude. The thing I like about him is that he is new blood. He is a different style and a different look for me and I get to work on different things and get to show skills in different areas. Just fighting new blood is exciting for me at this point. That would motivate me more than the last fight."

"Yeah, Eddie is someone that I have respected for a long time and I would definitely welcome that. But you know, as much as I try to get excited for these and try to make these things happen, right now, I am trying not to get involved in that. I really don't have that much say. I just let the promoters do it and hey, the power of the media, maybe you guys can help me out with that and the fans can make demands. But someone like Eddie would definitely interest me and definitely would motivate me. It's nothing I am going to try to push for or waist my time over, but anything would be cool. I am up for whomever right now. I want to stay busy and fight for my fans, fight for my team and fight for my family, so it doesn't matter who, I will take whoever right now."

Scared

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker was interviewed by MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani just before UFC 146 and they covered a lot of different Strikeforce subjects. After talking about Daniel Cormier and the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, Coker moved onto the topic of his lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez, and what to do with him. Basically, it looks like Pat Healy is next if he gets through Mizuto Hirota on July 14th (transcribed by MMA Mania):

"With Gilbert, we're going to take a look at what Pat Healy does
next. We don't know who he's fighting next (it's Hirota now) but we're
going to definitely put him in there with someone tough to see how he
does. By the time Gilbert fights again, either we're going to sign
somebody to come in and fight him or we're going to take another look at
Pat and see if he's the right guy."

Helwani brought up that Eddie Alvarez is an impending free agent, and Coker stated that he wants him to come in and fight Melendez:

"Come on over to Strikeforce, (Eddie Alvarez), let's do
the Melendez fight. That would be fantastic. I think that he's a guy who
is extremely talented that we would love to have in Strikeforce to
fight Gilbert. It would be great. ... If he is a free agent and he is
really free of any contractual relations, make the call. Eddie, come on
down, let's put the Melendez fight together."

Coker also talks about the possibility of Cris Cyborg facing off with Ronda Rousey at 135 when her suspension is up, if he had any worries about signing welterweight title challenger Nate Marquardt, and the Strikeforce middleweight title bout between Luke Rockhold and Tim Kennedy. You can check out the video below the jump.

Alvarez would be the best possible option at this point for Melendez if he is ducking Thomson or thinks he is too good to wanna fight against Healy. But it sounds like Gil doesn't want to fight anyone almost, pissed about SF still existing looks like.