Try and convince me to pick Melendez

Those thinking Melendez is gonna win, state ur case as to why, I'm waivering a little on Aoki.

Melendez is 100 times more well rounded, and this aint 1999, BJJ only players get laughed out of the cage. Melendez should be the favorite and if not, Vegas is gonna make it rich on him.

better striker, better wrestling, should be the stronger fighter, and look at his team, it's a jj whose who. I'm pretty confident in this pick.

he gets better every fight

Even if Aoki breaks one of his arms he will still have better standup

I picked Gil because he hits like a mack truck for a lightweight and he's good on the ground as well. He made a good point saying he's not one of Aoki's opponents who trains BJJ in preperation for Aoki...he's been training bJJ for years with guys like Shields and Diaz. Plus the cage plays to wrestlers and Aoki depends a lot on scambles to get the fight where he wants. If you watch Melendez second fight with Ishida everytime they scrambled Ishida ended up against the cage eating hard knees to the gut each time...and the takedown is Ishida's bread and butter.

I don't think Aoki wants to pull guard....i think Melendez will punch his brains into the mat before he even starts working from the bottom. He's going to have to be able to take Melendez down and get on top of him and Melendez is not easy to takedown anymore now that he utilizes the jab...thats the difference between the Melendez who lost to thomson and ishida because he could not avoid the takedown and the Melendez who beat the hell out of the same two guys in a rematch because he is more selective and accurate and very difficult to takedown. Aoki is too weak on the stand up for Melendez to have to stray away from the jab at any point like he eventually had to against a better striker in Thomson.

I think Melendez ends this fight due to strikes and i think he punches out Aoki...on the ground.

It's a great matchup and the one i'm looking most forward to on Saturday.

Good stuff, I'm teetering

And Bobbit that was a legit LOL

He's got decent enough wrestling to keep it standing and stay out of Aoki's world.

LA I think you can pick between Kings and Farmers points. Those are are the two possible ways I see this fight playing out. Gil can either tuff every takedown attemp with his superior wrestling and KO Aoki on the feet or Gil defends the subs on the ground and pounds Aoki's face in there. Obviously the safer route for Gil is to keep it standing but if it does hit the ground I just feel like Gil's teammates have really good bjj to and should have him prepared for anything Aoki has to offer.

The logical pick is Gil. The like Aoki as a fighter I love watching guys who use their bjj offensively but I got to go with the all around better fighter.

I didn't realize Gil is only a purple belt. Diaz, Shields, and Renzo or not, a purple belt just isn't on Aoki's level on the ground. The submission risk is real. Aoki is one of a handfull of guys with fear inspiring BJJ games. I want to see how "American JJ" plays against Aoki. The Diaz bros and Shields are also rare fighters with truly fearsome BJJ games, and that helps Gil, but Aoki is a different fighter from a different camp with different tricks. I hope it goes to the ground.

Melendez better keep it standing or he's getting subbed, bottom line. I don't think he can keep it standing, either.

better striker, better wrestler, and trains with Cesat Gracie fight time so his bjj aint too bad either. Aoki could still sub him, but im taking Gilbert by tko.

I'm just psyched this fight is happening. We can finally get a measure for just how good Aoki is. I think Wolf has a point about differences in JJ. Aoki has such a tricky jj game. I think it isn't similar to Shields or Diaz. Plus he's so good at transitioning from position to position. All that said, I have no idea who is going to win this fight.

This might be a last second decision

Ok guys I'm still on the fence, surprised no one mentioned this fight is in the States.

in the states, in a cage, with different rules. All things going in Favor of Gilbert.

I can't decide Oggy, ahhhhhhh!

just go with your gut..

It says Meloki

hey i've always liked aoki and almost always pick him but my gut is telling me Gilbert will win this fight somehow.

Simple. Japanese fighters suck in the states.

I'm gonna go smoke my crystal bong and it'll tell me who to go with

haha i need to get one of those

tolivendiewithLA wrote:

Those thinking Melendez is gonna win, state ur case as to why, I'm waivering a little on Aoki.

LA I have been struggling with the same thing, AOki in my mind has face and finished stiffer competition. Melendez has only finished fighters on loosing streaks in his last handful of fights. AOKI has underrated ability to get the fight to the ground and melendez is eager to get caught up in scrambles where I think aoki could pull off a sick sub.

TO justify my pick for melendez I am saying he is bigger stronger and will be able to keep the fight on his feet where aoki has shown he does not want to be. He also trains with nice BJJ guys in diaz brothers and shields and will stay out of bad positions if it hits the mat

It said fuck it, go with Melendez