Bellator announced on Friday evening that former Strikeforce lightweight champion and UFC fighter Gilbert Melendez had agreed to terms on a contract and the UFC has the right to match the offer.
The news of Melendez agreeing to terms with Bellator was the talk on social media and fans began to speculate if the UFC would match the contract.
At this time, the UFC has not made any public comments about the contract offer that Melendez received from Bellator, but it’s believe that they have almost three weeks to decide if they want to match the offer.
If the UFC does not match the offer for Melendez and he signs the contract to compete in Bellator, a potential opponent for him in his first fight could be season nine tournament winner Will Brooks.
During his appearance on today’s edition of “The MMA Report Live,” Brooks discussed how he texted him manager once he heard about the Melendez potential signing and how he wants to fight Melendez, if he ends up in Bellator.
“I texted my manager right away and when I first read about it, the first thing was the quotes from Dana [White] and him expressing his frustrations with Gilbert’s management and what not,” Brooks said. “Once I heard the next portion and Gilbert signed a multi-deal contract with Bellator, I instantly started to think to myself, let’s get my manger on the phone because I want that fight.”
“That is just something that I have always wanted. When I got into this sport, I wanted to fight the best guys in the world in the lightweight division and Gilbert Melendez is one of those guys. He is one of the top ten lightweight guys in the world and that is just an open opportunity, especially since [Michael] Chandler is going to be fighting [Eddie] Alvarez for the belt soon.”
Brooks (13-1) does not currently have a fight booked and has been training at American Top Team in Florida and is waiting to hear when his next fight will be. He has always been known as a fighter that likes to stay active as he competed six times last year in Bellator. He wants to get back into the cage soon and recently told Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney on Twitter that he would be willing to give up his title shot to face Melendez.
“If Gilbert is coming over, how about instead of him sitting on the shelf and waiting for something, why don’t we fight? I think it’s an interesting fight. I think it’s a great matchup and just a great opportunity for me as well also. As soon as I heard the news, I immediately text my manager and told him, ‘listen if this sticks, I want that fight’ and I needed to get that out there into the open. I tweeted Bjorn and I was like ‘listen, I will give up my title shot just to fight this guy.’ I got really excited about it.”
Brooks secured his shot at the Bellator lightweight title when he defeated Alexander “Tiger” Sarnavskiy at Bellator 109 by unanimous decision to win the season nine tournament. The lightweight title is currently backed logged as Dave Jansen is also waiting for his title shot as he won the season seven tournament at the beginning of last year.
When Brooks stated that he would be willing to give up his title shot, fans began to wonder why he would give up the title shot to face Melendez. Brooks explained that he wants to face the best competition that he can, and he would like to test his skills against Melendez, who is consider one of the top three lightweights in the world.
“My mindset was this is a great opportunity to fight a top ten guy and a talented fighter. Again, I only want to compete against the best guys and if we are able to get another ranked guy, we already have Michael Chandler and Eddie Alvarez, who are two of the top lightweights in the division. Those opportunities to fight one of those guys, will be there in the future but to have a guy that is experienced as Gilbert Melendez. To test your skills against a guy like that would just be amazing.”
“I think right now, I will be honest with anybody. I feel like I am being a little overlooked and not getting enough attention for some of the things I have done so far. That’s fine since I can’t control what people do or say, but I also want to get out there and show people what I have done so far is just a taste of what I can do. Fighting a guy like Gilbert will bring everything out of me. It would force me to bring every single skill and trick that I have in my tool case and I think it’s a great opportunity.”
Brooks would like the opportunity to face Melendez at the upcoming Bellator PPV, which will be headlined by the trilogy bout between Alvarez and Chandler. Bellator has not officially announced a date for the pay-per-view, but it will likely take place sometime in the next three months.
“If I was able to get that pay-per-view fight against Gilbert Melendez, that would be amazing. I can’t put into words how I feel emotionally about the opportunity to possibly fight a guy like that. I am just going to continue to put my name in the hat just in case things do stick. I am going to continue to promote myself for that fight and try to build it up and get it going.