UFC: Five Reasons Why Gilbert Melendez Is a Better Addition Than Nick Diaz
After the exciting main card of Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley, fans have been clamoring for the UFC to bring Cesar Gracie Jiu Jitsu teammates Nick Diaz and Gilbert Melendez on board.
The Strikeforce welterweight and light champions respectively, a good number of fans and analysts would like to see Diaz jump ship first to take on current UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre.
While this is an intriguing fight on paper, it is really not the most realistic match up, given the present scene of the UFC welterweight division.
This, combined with several other reasons, is why Gilbert Melendez is a hotter commodity than Nick Diaz for the UFC right now.
5. Casual Fan Appeal
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Melendez has a catchy nickname, an official website, and a clothing line.
Diaz does not.
This matters because it makes Melendez a more appealing fighter to the casual fan.
Is this trivial? Yes. Is it true? Yes.
How many people knew who Chael Sonnen was before he began trash talking Anderson Silva leading up to their title fight?
Sonnen is now a household name for anyone who watches MMA.
For those who do not think marketability and casual fan appeal matters, what better explanation is there for a guy like Dan Hardy still being under contract with the UFC?
4. Attitude/Image
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This is an obvious one, but it still warrants mentioning. UFC President Dana White has praised Nick Diaz’s talents many times, but has also criticized his attitude just as often.
White recently said Diaz will need “calm down a little” if he ever wants back in the UFC, and most fans and fighters alike will agree that Diaz is not changing his attitude anytime soon.
Diaz does not like to cooperate with the media before and after fights, and is known for being a big complainer in his interviews.
He is also often mislabeled a trash talker, but Diaz does not really dig into his opponents in an entertaining fashion that helps sell fights.
Melendez is just another fighter in the sense that he is open to pre and post fight interviews and rarely says anything controversial.
However, his recent dominance, and reasonable claims that he is the number one lightweight in the world, makes him someone fans want to see and hear outside of the ring.
Diaz just does not have this same sort of appeal, and likely never will
3. Style Is a Better Fit in the UFC
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Melendez has the wrestling, striking, and Jiu Jitsu to dominate anyone in the lightweight division not named Gray Maynard or Frankie Edgar, and he is capable of beating either of those fighters in a tightly contested bout.
While Diaz has tremendous Jiu Jitsu and boxing skills, his wrestling acumen has always been his Achilles heel.
The UFC division is swarming with high level wrestlers including Josh Koscheck, Anthony Johnson, Diego Sanchez, Jon Fitch, and of course the current champion Georges St-Pierre.
While Diaz could likely handle Johnson comfortably, the other wrestlers all have the style and skills that Diaz has struggled with up to this point in his career.
Also, do not forget that Diaz’s last venture into the UFC’s welterweight division resulted in three consecutive losses.
Granted, he was only 22-years-old and lost to top tier competition in Diego Sanchez, Joe Riggs (at the time) and Sean Sherk.
Melendez has never competed in the UFC before, but has recently beaten some quality lightweights in Tatsuya Kawajiri, Shinya Aoki and Josh Thompson.
Kawajiri and Aoki are consensus top 10 lightweights, while Thompson is a former Strikeforce lightweight champion who had a brief stint in the UFC in his younger days.
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2. Relevance Within Respected Division
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Melendez is currently ranked the number two lightweight in the world by both Sherdog and MMAWeekly.com, behind only UFC lightweight title holder Frankie Edgar.
“El Niño” has also broken his way into the bottom of a few top 10 pound-for-pound lists recently.
Meanwhile, Nick Diaz is not ranked any higher than number seven on any credible welterweight rankings.
The UFC’s welterweight division is deep despite the dominance of St-Pierre, so giving Diaz a shot at the champ right away is probably a bit overzealous considering that he has not faced a top tier welterweight outside of Paul Daley in years.
Melendez is indisputably an elite lightweight alongside Edgar and Gray Maynard, which is one reason why his crossover to the UFC would be more significant than if Diaz made the same move.
1. Lightweight Division Is Wide Open, Welterweight Division Is Not
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Georges St-Pierre has owned every worthy competitor in the welterweight division including Thiago Alves, Josh Koscheck (twice), Jon Fitch, Matt Hughes (twice) and BJ Penn (twice).
If he can get past Jake Shields at UFC 129, it is easy to theorize that a fight with Diaz will breathe new life into the division.
But if St-Pierre walks out with the belt on April 30, it seems pretty clear that no one can hang with him at 170.
And because of that, a superfight with middleweight champion Anderson Silva is more likely than ever, and Diaz will likely be lost in the shuffle.
Meanwhile, the lightweight division has plenty of guys capable of holding the title in the next year in Jim Miller, Clay Guida, Anthony Pettis, and of course no one knows definitively who the better fighter is between Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar.
Edgar has proven to be an entertaining champion, with a great skill set and tremendous heart, but he simply does not have the dominance in the lightweight division that St-Pierre has in the welterweight division.
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