Gilbert Melendez has been known as the best lightweight fighter in the world not signed by the UFC before this year and he finally made his octagon debut last night, but came up short in the judges scorecards against Benson Henderson.
Two of the three judges scoring the fight for the California State Athletic Commission felt that Henderson won three of the fight rounds and the other judge felt that Melendez won three of the fight rounds.
Following last night’s card, Melendez appeared on the FUEL TV post fight show and told FUEL TV reporter Ariel Helwani that he thought he won the first, second and fifth rounds.
“I thought I did bigger attacks, I landed cleaner punches,” Melendez said. “He hit me, but all on the forehead. I left him pretty bloody. And he had some good kicks. I thought I won 1, 2, I can see him winning 3, 4, but I thought I came strong in the fifth and stole the fight.”
After the decision was read, several media members and fans felt that the UFC should book an immediate rematch between Henderson and Melendez. The UFC has done this in the past with Henderson when he defeated Frankie Edgar at UFC 144 to win the lightweight title.
Melendez was asked if he would ask for an immediate rematch and the last Strikeforce lightweight champion is not doing that and is heartbroken that he was unable to become the UFC champion last night in San Jose.
“You know, I’m not going to say that right now. I’m just happy to be part of the UFC, and I’m just heartbroken right now.”
Henderson felt he won the fight and stated in his post fight interview on FUEL TV that he won four of the five rounds. He is not sure whether there should be an immediate rematch but would sign up for it if that is what the UFC wants to do.
“I’m not sure. I know some guys are not too big on the rematch. I had to do that whole rematch thing again. If it is, I’ll do it again. But there are some true killers at 155 in the UFC. Perhaps the most stacked weight class there is, so I know I got a long list of guys who want to beat the crap out of me.”
However, UFC President Dana White announced at the post fight press conference that there would not be an immediate rematch and the winner of the UFC 160 bout between Gray Maynard and TJ Grant would be the next title challenger for Henderson.
UFC match maker Joe Silva made the decision that the winner of Maynard-Grant would be next for Henderson according to White. Would this be the case if Melendez would have won by split decision? Only Silva has the answer to that question.