Strikeforce is set to take place on Friday, June 27th at the
HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. The main event is headlined by Gilbert "El Niño"
Melendez as he will be putting his belt on the line against
Josh "The Punk" Thomson. Both fighters are actually good
friends outside of the cage, but in a recent interview with mmaweekly Melendez
stated:
"Once they close that cage and it’s in there and my belt is on the line,
my future is on the line, and my career is on the line, it’s going to be real
easy to hit him man. It’s going to be real, real easy for me to hit him. I
don’t think he’s going to have a problem trying to take off my head and I’m not
going to have a problem doing the same to him. I would expect nothing less from
him."
Also on the fight card is Strikeforce light heavyweight champ Bobby Southworth
who will be defending his belt against the #1 challenger in the
division, Anthony "El Toro"
Ruiz. Former UFC contender Joe "Diesel" Riggs is expected to participate
as well. He’s coming back from terrible back injury he suffered during his bout
against Cory Devela at the "Strikeforce at the Dome" event.
This time, Diesel will be facing Luke Stewart as he tries to climb back up to
the top of the middleweight division.
The
main fight card will be televised only on HDNet fights starting at
10:30pm ET. Here’s the complete Strikeforce "Melendez vs. Thomson"
fight card:
Main Fight Card:
- Gilbert "El Niño" Melendez (14-1) vs. Joe "The Punk" Thomson (14-2)
- Bobby Southworth (8-5) vs. Anthony "El Toro" Ruiz (20-10)
- Joe "Diesel" Riggs (27-10) vs. Luke Stewart (5-1)
- Raymond "The Real Deal" Daniels (0-0) vs. Jeremiah Metcalf (8-4)
- Nam Phan (14-4) vs. Billy Evangelista (6-0)
- Elaina Maxwell (2-2) vs. Miesha Tate (1-1)
- Chris Cariaso (6-1) vs. Anthony "Antdawg" Figueroa (4-2)
Preliminary Fight Card:
- Jesse Gillespie (1-1) vs. Dave Martin (0-1)
- Bobby Stack (4-1) vs. Jose Palacios (3-0)
- Brian Caraway (4-2) vs. Alvin Cacdac (4-3)
- Cyrillo Padhillo (1-2) vs. Jesse Jones (2-0)
- Eric Jacob (1-3) vs. Alexander Trivino (1-0)
- Jorge Interiano (debut, 0-0) vs. Travis Johnson (debut, 0-0)
