By MATT BOONE
MMANEWS.COM Staff Writer

According to recent reports, Alex Davis, manager to highly regarded 155-pound MMA contender Gesias "JZ" Cavalcante, confirmed his fighters' next match on a recent edition of MMAWeekly.com Radio. In an interesting pairing, JZ Cavalcante will make his Strikeforce debut against former champion of their lightweight division, Josh "The Punk" Thomson.

The match would likely have title implications in Strikeforce, with the winner moving closer to a crack at current Strikeforce champion Gilbert Melendez, which in the case of Thomson would cap off an exciting trilogy of fights.

Thomson (17-3) last fought at the infamous Strikeforce/M-1 Global co-promoted event in Thomson's hometown of San Jose, the event which saw the legendary streak of Fedor Emelianenko ended by rising contender Fabricio Werdum. That same night, Thomson took out a game Pat Healy by rear-naked choke with just seconds left of the final round of their entertaining bout, one many felt was the fight of the night that June 26th evening. A win over the respected Cavalcante would certainly move along Thomson's quest to get back in the cage with multiple-time rival Melendez.

Cavalcante (15-3-1) on the other hand has spent the majority of his MMA career in various Japanese-based organizations, compiling an impressive list of wins on his MMA resume, as he had several of the finest 155 lb. fighters not signed by the UFC to challenge himself against. JZ's last performance came just two months ago at DREAM 15, where he took a tough split decision over Katsunori Kikuno. Prior to the victory, Cavalcante had been out of action healing up after a pair of losses to the top ranked Shinya Aoki and Tatsuya Kawajiri. A win over Thomson in his Strikeforce debut would set up a new legitimate lightweight contender for the San Jose-based promotion to utilize, one who often puts on entertaining fights when he enters the ring or cage.