Strikeforce Champion Gilbert Melendez on UFC Fight: Let's Unify These Belts!

With Gilbert Melendez’s successful defense of his Strikeforce Lightweight Championship last Saturday night, rumors continue to swirl about a potential dream fight with UFC Lightweight Champion, Frankie Edgar.

Melendez dismantled Tatsuya Kawajiri, making great use of the new Strikeforce rules that now permit fighters to use elbows. He barely even looked to be tested in this fight against a consensus top 10 lightweight.

Now 19-2 in his MMA career, “El Niño” has defeated back-to-back top fighters since avenging his only two career losses to Josh Thomson and Mitsuhiro Ishida.

Now he looks forward to an even greater challenge against some of the UFC’s top lightweights, including current champion, Frankie Edgar.

“Let’s unify these belts, bro,” Melendez told MiddleEasy.com. “I just wanna’ unify these straps.”

Fans of the sport would love to see a showdown between these two champions, as well as champions in other divisions. It would be an important part in Melendez’s quest to be the world’s top 155 pound fighter.

“I want to be number one,” he explained. “Number one means more respect, more money, branding yourself in the sport. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

Still, some fans don’t believe that Melendez deserves the spot at the top of the rankings.

“I think I’ve been in this sport a lot longer than all those 155-ers,” Melendez continued. “I just think people should look into it a little bit more. Know your history in the sport. If they look back, they’ll know I’m the number one fighter.”

But before the potential title unification happens, Frankie Edgar will have to settle things with the only man he hasn’t defeated, Gray Maynard.

When asked who he would rather fight, the Strikeforce champion didn’t seem to care which fighter comes out on top.

“It doesn’t matter,” he emphatically stated. “Whoever has the strap!”

“I’ll be there, May 30th, checking that [expletive] out.”