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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Josh Thomson and Gesias "JZ" Cavalcante engaged in an extremely close fight on Saturday's Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Noons 2 event in San Jose, and Thomson took a step towards a third fight with Gilbert Melendez by winning a unanimous decision.
But Thomson needed to survive a scare early in the fight. Cavalcante dropped him with a right hand to the temple early in the first round, and then locked on a guillotine choke. He worked for the choke for the better part of the next two minutes, but Thomson survived and worked from there. He stole the round on all three judges' scorecards with some ground and pound and an arm triangle choke attempt of his own.
In the second and third the action slowed down, and each fighter looked to take one apiece. Thomson took Cavalcante down in the second and used his positional advantage throughout, while the opposite was true in the third. However, one judge gave Thomson the third round and all three in the fight, prompting Thomson to say after the fight that there was no way he won all three rounds.
But the result was not an unjust one, as Thomson certainly made a case for taking the first round, and he did enough to slightly edge it for the judges. Depending on what's next for Melendez, Thomson may need to take one more fight before getting the rubber match, but he picked up a much needed victory to make his case in San Jose.
Penick's Analysis: It was good of Thomson to call out the judge of the 30-27 card even though it was in his favor. He knew he didn't win that round, and it was refreshing to hear a fighter say that. But although I had the fight scored for Cavalcante, I saw the argument for Thomson taking the first round. Considering he clearly took the second there was no robbery here and it was a good win for him. Cavalcante should be better off his next time out, as he's had some relative inactivity over the last few years.
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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