411's Strikeforce on NBC Report 05.10.08

Posted by Randy Harrison on 05.19.2008

Strikeforce invades the Playboy Mansion and they're bringing their Lightweight Champion, Gilbert Melendez with them..



411's Strikeforce on NBC Report

The fifth episode of Strikeforce on NBC starts NOW! Tonight we get to see Strikeforce at the Playboy Mansion! Frank Shamrock talks about now MMA is for real, while Hef says that it's always been a guilty pleasure of his. Various celebs are talking about how excited they are for the fights and we're off to the INTRO!


Segment One

Lon McEachern welcomes us to the Playboy Mansion and tells us that we're going to be seeing the Strikeforce Lightweight Champion in action!


Match One:
Tetsuji Kato (18-7) vs. Gilbert Melendez (12-0)


Round One

Melendez shoots in immediately for a takedown and gets a deep double-leg attempt against the fence that Kato is doing well to sprawl out of. They work to a clinch and trade knees inside before Melendez changes levels for another takedown attempt. It gets stuffed and they are circling in the middle of the cage, trading punches with nothing landing. Melendez gets a good right hook to land and stops Kato with a STIFF jab. RIGHT HAND DROPS KATO!! Melendez drops into the guard and tries to finish but Kato does really well to close the guard and hold Melendez down to avoid any more damage. Melendez tries to posture up but he can't break free yet, throwing the odd short punch but not being able to sustain any flurries. He tries to get past the guard and finally just stands over Kato, landing a couple of punches before dropping back into the guard. Melendez postures up for some rapid-fire left hands, scoring serious points and swelling up Kato's face. Melendez is in half-guard and continuing to punish Kato with the left, with blood coming from Kato's mouth. Kato manages to back his way up the fence and pushes back to his feet and they circle with Melendez landing another short right just before the end of the round.

Round Analysis: Melendez just smashed up Kato for almost the entire five minutes. That left hand was finding its mark on the mat and the right was finding a home during the stand-up. Kato is going to have to avoid those punches and try to put Melendez onto his back to have any chance.


Segment Two

Back from the break and it's time for the second round of Melendez/Kato from the grounds of the Playboy Mansion!


Round Two

Kato lands a good short left hand to start the round but Melendez just pushes right through it, bullying Kato up against the fence. They separate back to the center of the cage and start trading single shots back and forth before Melendez lands a good one-two combo. Leg kick from Melendez and another good one-two and Kato looks like he's cut from three or four places on his face. His left eye is swelling pretty badly too as Melendez continues to pick Kato apart standing up, landing a BIG right hand on the button. Shamrock wonders if Melendez could have a bit of a stinger in his right hand since he was shaking it out after landing that shot. Lots of lefts being thrown by Melendez and there could be some merit to it. Melendez tries for a shot but he can't get the takedown and Kato tries for one of his own, with the same lack of result. The referee stops things for a moment to allow Kato to get his mouthpiece back and he's bleeding on the outside of his right eye pretty heavily. Leg kick lands solidly for Kato and he misses the left hook follow-up. Good combination for Melendez and they circle a little more with Melendez throwing left jabs and left hooks. Another solid leg kick from Kato and there's a couple of combinations from Melendez in response as the horn sounds to end round two.

Round Analysis: Another Melendez round, but only because of Kato's seeming lack of offense. Melendez didn't land anything too damaging this round but he was pushing the pace and keeping Kato backpedalling. It will be interesting to watch if Melendez continues to not use that right hand in the third round and whether there is a significant injury to it.


Segment Three

After another batch of commercials, it's the third and final round of this lightweight showdown!


Round Three

They touch gloves and Melendez lands a couple of solid left jabs before shooting in and getting a BIG takedown against the fence. Melendez postures up and lands another couple of left hands and hammerfists, trying to pass out of the guard and getting to the half-guard. Lefts to the body and to the head for Melendez and Kato is looking even a little bloodier than he did in the second round. Kato does well to back up against the fence again and gets back to his feet, landing another leg kick to the lead leg of Melendez. Kato ducks under a combination and lands another leg kick and Melendez fires back with another handful of left jabs. Kato pushes for a clinch against the fence and tries for a bodylock takedown, finally getting Melendez down for a moment but Gilbert is right back to his feet. Kato rides him down to the mat and tries to take Melendez's back but they end up scrambling and getting back to their feet. Left to the body and a left hook from Melendez and he stuffs a takedown attempt from Kato, landing a SOLID knee up the middle. Melendez continues to land the straight left repeatedly as well as the jab and Kato is backing up trying to get away from the onslaught. Melendez lands a couple of HARD left hooks right before the horn sounds to end the fight!


Segment Four

We head into the cage and all three judges have the fight scored at 30-27 for Gilbert Melendez.

Winner: Gilbert Melendez, Unanimous Decision

Fight Analysis: Melendez dominated that fight pretty much from the outset and the only reason that I think he wasn't able to finish was the injury to the right hand, however serious it was. His right hand was landing flush during the stand-up exchanges in the first round and even put Kato down to the mat, so if he had been able to throw full-force punches with that right hand in the second and third rounds, I think he would have been able to get a stoppage one way or the other. Still a very dominating performance for Melendez though against a tough opponent.

We see the clips of Melendez shaking his right hand after the fight and Frank Shamrock is in the cage with him to get the lowdown on any potential injury. Melendez says that it's been hurt for the past couple of months training before the fight but that he doesn't think it's broken, just hurt from him landing those shots. Lon thanks us for watching and another edition of Strikeforce on NBC is in the books!


The Final Strike

Another single fight show, which I can understand them having because of the somewhat limited library at their disposal, but it still just makes the show seem like it's dragging to have a fifteen minute fight stretched out into a half-hour program. They're picking fairly good fights for the one-fight shows, but there's only so much they can do with them since they take up so much time. If you run a profile like the last episode, you end up having to cut out a little bit of the fight. If you show the fight straight through, there's no profile and nothing but the fight itself, which seems a little weird as well. A difficult position to be in, but for now Strikeforce seems to be straddling the line alright. They're starting to run out of free passes though.