Melendez-MMasvidal OFF

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MMAJunkie.comMMAjunkie.com

A planned fight between Strikeforce world lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez (13-1) and challenger Jorge Masvidal (13-2) has been scratched from the March 29 Strikeforce/EliteXC show.

Strikeforce Vice President Mike Afromowitz told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that Masvidal injured his shin during this past weekend's "Strikeforce at the Dome" show, which prompted the cancellation of next month's fight with Melendez.

Masvidal scored a unanimous-decision victory over Ryan Healy at Saturday's event, which took place at the Tacoma Dome in the state of Washington's first-ever Strikeforce show.

Strikeforce officials are currently on the search for a replacement to fight Melendez. Although the event is headlined by a highly marketable fight between Strikeforce world middleweight champion Frank Shamrock and Cung Le, Melendez had been considered one of the night's other top draws.

The Melendez-Masvidal fight was first reported by fiveouncesofpain.com's Sam Caplan in January.

Melendez won Strikeforce's world lightweight title (Josh Thomson is Strikeforce's U.S. lightweight champ) with a win over Clay Guida in June 2006. After 13 consecutive victories to start his career, he suffered his first loss in December at the "Yarennoka!" New Year's Eve show in Japan. Mitsuhiro Ishida edged the 25-year-old for a close but unanimous decision victory.

Masvidal, an American Top team product, had earned the title shot after success in BodoFIGHT and Strikeforce. Saturday's victory pushed his current win streak to seven fights. He had previously scored victories over UFC fighters Joe Lauzon, Yves Edwards, Steve Berger and Brian Geraghty.

Masvidal was a recent guest on TAGG Radio (www.taggradio.com), an MMAjunkie.com content partner, and said the injury would keep him from training properly for the five-round fight with Melendez.

"Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Cung Le" airs on Showtime and takes place at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

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So, is Melendez fighting for DREAM or not?

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Its doesn't seem so, unless maybe K-1 drops some cash on StrikeForce.

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Thanks for the news, was really looking forward to this one.

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Is Melendez/Thomson possible?

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"Is Melendez/Thomson possible? "

That was the original plan but Thomson is recovering from Surgery I thought.

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that was already the originally planned fight which was cancelled after Josh got hurt.

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yaaay

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Everyone including Melendez wants to see him in the LWGP, especially now the only 2 good LW title fights Strikeforce could put together have fallen through.

We don't want to see him fight the likes of Kato, like he did last time for Strikeforce, we want to see him fight Hansen, Alvarez, Dida, JZ, Aoki, Ishida and Kawajiri rematches, etc.

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Billy Evangelista... ?

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Do they have a working agreement with K-1? Could they get Shaolin?

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sucks

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If Shaolin is competing anywhere I would imagine it will be the GP. Although I am not sure he will do either as he is still recovering from a detached retina.

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melendez will not be fighting in japan. wants to make his mark here in the states. he was on taggradio wednesday, check out his interview.

www.taggradio.com

furthermore, it looks like gilbert will be fighting on the strikeforce card, most likely a japanese fighter.

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That fucking sucks. I wish he'd be in the DREAM tournament.

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Mitsuoka? Nakakura? I can't name too many good Japanese LWs that aren't involved in the GP.

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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

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that sucks about Melendez not fighting in the dreams tournament.

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He would have made a much bigger mark on the LW division had he taken part in the GP.

Fighting a Japanese fighter that could not make the LWGP isn't going to do much for him.

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Well, to be fair, not every good LW is in the GP, and it's not as if guys like Miyata, Black Mamba, and Buscape are world-beaters.