UFC 136 Results: 3 Reasons Frankie Edgar Should Face Gilbert Melendez Next

Frankie Edgar emerged victories over Gray Maynard last night at UFC 136, in another instant classic fight between the two top 155lb fighters.

But since the UFC is a constant game of “Who’s Next” it’s time to put the trilogy behind us and focus on the future for our lightweight champion.

Edgar is usually pretty active and will likely want to fight again soon, but with the UFC’s lightweight division looking like they’ll have to just draw a name out of a hat to choose the next title contender, it’s time to bring in an outsider.

Enter Gilbert Melendez.

With Maynard losing to Edgar, Melendez is now the number two lightweight in the world, and it’s time for the UFC champion to unify his belt with the Strikeforce champion.

The UFC Has No Other Options for Edgar

In the 10 months in between Edgar and Maynard’s second and third fights, we have lost Evan Dunham, George Sotiropoulos, Anthony Pettis, Jim Miller, and Melvin Guillard as possible title contenders.

The division is a mess.

The fight between Clay Guida and Ben Henderson on November 12^th will likely decide who is next in line for a shot at the belt, but it is unlikely the winner of that fight will come out unscathed and it would be beneficial to keep Edgar in action.

The Battle for Number One

Even though being a UFC champion is usually enough to automatically force everyone to call you the best in the division, for some reason this rule has been ignored and Edgar is still behind Melendez in some 155lb rankings.

This fight needs to happen now, if only to decide whom the true number one fighter in the division is.

Losing Melendez Would Be the Death of Strikeforce

If the UFC steals Melendez from Strikeforce, (and it has already almost been confirmed by Dana White) then the San Jose based organization might as well close up shop.

The loss of Melendez would mean that Strikeforce has lost its lightweight, welterweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight champions since the UFC purchased the company earlier this year, and there honestly would be no reason to keep it alive.

This would enable the UFC to take their pick of all the Strikeforce fighters they would like to bring over into their organization and we would get to see some of the dream matchups we’ve been waiting for.