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Gilbert Melendez still sidelined, OUT of January title fight with Pat Healy

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There's almost no other way to put it: Here we go again.

Two months ahead of his title defense at Strikeforce's next card – and reportedly its last card – lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez has been sidelined again.

The news comes from Tatame, and UFC/Zuffa President Dana White said on a fan chat with the Montreal Gazette earlier in the day Friday that he believed Melendez was going to be off the January show.

Melendez (21-2 MMA, 11-1 SF) has been in this situation before. He was scheduled to defend his title against Pat Healy (28-16 MMA, 6-1 SF) in September in Sacramento. But when he injured his shoulder, Strikeforce canceled the card altogether when broadcast partner Showtime decided to not air the card without Melendez on it as its headliner.

And not long after that, Strikeforce's follow-up show, scheduled for Nov. 3 in Oklahoma City, also was scrapped when Frank Mir pulled out of a headlining bout with Daniel Cormier and co-main event middleweight champ Luke Rockhold also was sidelined.

The cancellation of back-to-back fight cards left fighters, fans and analysts wondering just what the future was for the promotion – and many speculated that the organization likely would fold, with select fighters being folded into the UFC.

But not long after the cancellation of the Nov. 3 show, Strikeforce and Showtime said a blockbuster card was being planned for January. And recently, details began to emerge of that show, which is scheduled for Jan. 12 in Oklahoma City at Chesapeake Energy Arena, site of the canceled Nov. 3 show.

Melendez again was to headline against Healy, with Rockhold vs. Lorenz Larkin in the co-main event and welterweight champ Nate Marquardt defending his belt for the first time against Tarec Saffiedine. Plus, Cormier is to meet Dion Staring in a heavyweight bout.

TMZ reported earlier this month that the event will be the last for Strikeforce, which would mean Melendez's career with the promotion is over.

Melendez trainer and coach Cesar Gracie told Tatame that the fighter will concentrate on moving over to the UFC.

"I think he never recovered from the shoulder injury and will not be able to fight in January," Gracie said. "He had a doctor's appointment this week and the doctor said that he will not be able to fight. We will focus on his recovery. With the end of (Strikeforce), he should migrate to the UFC."

Strikeforce and UFC officials could not immediately comment on Melendez's status. It is not known if Healy will remain on the card in some fashion. Without a Melendez-Healy headliner, the Rockhold-Larkin or Marquardt-Saffiedine title fights could move into the main event

Reports: Champ Gilbert Melendez still sidelined, out of January title fight with Pat Healy | MMAjunkie.com

And the January Strikeforce card takes a big hit, but id like to be the first to say welcome to the UFC Gill, your days of fighting the cans in strikeforce are over, and we will get to see just how good you really are

Gil will be a solid top 3 lw in the UFC.

I really like how him and Bendo match up..Wonder if we get to see it if Bendo beats Nate and say Gil comes over and beats ehmmm Cerrone if Pettis continues to be sidelined or Sherk could work also.

Just close 'er down StrikeForce...

The Healy fight was all kinds of risky for Melendez, especially coming off of the long layoff against a smaller named fighter, coupled with his subpar performances against Thomson(I had Punk winning) and Masvidal(which felt very phoned in and half-hearted, keeping in mind Masvidal was fighting with a broken hand), however I kind of believed it would've been an opportunity for Gil to get back with a more impressive victory, before making the jump to ZUFFA.

I think Melendez has loads of top tier POTENTIAL and is a really, really good LW, but I'm not too confident in his ability against the top of the UFC LW division quite yet, IMO his overall game has somewhat stagnated at the moment.

Kind of works out for him in the end. Assuming this is in fact the last card Strikeforce puts on, it's good business sense for him to pull out now. He doesn't risk losing his title, which will surely put him higher up the top 10 UFC LW rankings, once he joins. Especially if he's no where near 100%. It certainly would have been nice for Strikeforce to have him on their last card, for the sake of ratings, but at least they have plenty of time to put another fights on the card.

Might not be so good for Healy though. Unless the UFC puts him against Melendez in their first UFC fight (Healy's return to the UFC fight). Otherwise, I see the UFC treating him like a mid-card or prelim fighter.

So, if Ronday is in the UFC and Gilbert is out, that leaves 2 title fights out of the supposed 4 that were supposed to be at this huge event. Their final event is starting to sound more and more average. They've already cancelled the last two events so why not go for three in a row and just shut it down already?

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Originally Posted by Fe1 (Post 984607)

Considering the organization has been around long enough to pre-date the UFC by close to a decade, it would be a shame to see the go out after 2 cancelled events.

I wouldn't be surprised if this last card was part of a deal they had with showtime as well.

Somebody is ducking Healy.

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Originally Posted by Sakara=Excitement (Post 984617)

Somebody is ducking Healy.

I think he is too, but for a much tougher well known ufc fighter. My only concern is what's he going to do if nate wins the title? I'm thinking if bendo retains the belt gil will get the shot.
I just thought of something, Eddie alvarez vs gil in the ufc :D

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Originally Posted by kalebarker (Post 984615)

Ya, the organization has been around since 85 but they didn't become involved with MMA until 06. It was foolish of them to think they would last forever in a market dominated by UFC.