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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Shinya Aoki entered the Strikeforce cage on Saturday night intent on showcasing the superiority of Japanese MMA against Gilbert Melendez to the largest American audience he's ever fought in front of.
His mission was not accomplished.
Melendez put together a dominating performance through five rounds in Nashville on CBS, outstriking Aoki by a ridiculous margin and stuffing all 18 of the Japanese superstar's takedown attempts.
All five rounds of the Championship fight went about the same, with Aoki desperately trying to get the fight to the ground and Melendez only obliging on occasion. Aoki constantly tried to pull guard to the ire of the crowd in attendance, but Melendez forced him to stand up almost every time.
He did work some ground and pound in spots, as he was able to hold off Aoki's attempts to do something from his back and gained more confidence in his ground attack.
But while the outcome of the fight was never in doubt, the action was still lacking throughout most of the fight. Melendez played a safe and tentative game despite the massive striking disparity during the fight, as he looked to avoid playing into Aoki's dangerous submission game.
At the end of the night, Melendez displayed excellent takedown defense and Aoki offered nothing in the striking department, and Melendez cruised to a decision to retain his Lightweight Title.
Penick's Analysis: After watching that fight I can't believe Aoki had been considered the number two lightweight in the world by so many people. Melendez put himself into the conversation, as his style and his skills would allow him to be competitive against most if not all of the lightweights in the UFC, but the same cannot be said of Aoki. After that, there are no less than five of the UFC's top lightweights that I'd pick over Aoki. The fight itself was disappointing, as everyone was expecting more from both fighters than a five round one-sided fight, and it wasn't a very exciting one-sided fight at that.
RELATED STORY: Penick's detailed Strikeforce on CBS report with star ratings and analysis: [CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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