{"id":47320,"date":"2012-12-14T11:13:47","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T19:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=47320"},"modified":"2022-02-06T13:23:54","modified_gmt":"2022-02-06T21:23:54","slug":"gilbert-melendez-wants-a-unification-bout-with-benson-henderson-ufc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/gilbert-melendez-wants-a-unification-bout-with-benson-henderson-ufc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Gilbert Melendez Wants A Unification Bout With Benson Henderson  | UFC NEWS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/gilbert-melendez.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/gilbert-melendez.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"gilbert melendez\" width=\"390\" height=\"270\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-47321\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/gilbert-melendez.jpg 390w, https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/gilbert-melendez-300x207.jpg 300w, https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/gilbert-melendez-361x250.jpg 361w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 390px) 100vw, 390px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n    <em>&#8220;I want to fight Benson Henderson. I think a champion versus champion fight makes absolute sense right now. I think we already know how things are going to work out between Benson Henderson and a lot of other lightweight fighters in the UFC, but I&#8217;m that mystery fighter. No one really knows how I&#8217;m going to matchup with anyone. I have been around for a long time and have been the top lightweight in the world before Benson or any of these other guys.<\/p>\n<p>    &#8220;I think I have a lot of answers for his style. Sometimes he fights a wrestler like Guida who doesn&#8217;t have great hands, and sometimes he fights strikers who can&#8217;t really wrestle. Look at his fights against &#8220;Cowboy&#8221; Cerrone back in the day, or even Pettis. I have that wrestling pedigree where he ain&#8217;t taking me down, and I&#8217;ll be stuffing some shots. I&#8217;m not backing away, and I&#8217;ll be dropping some bombs. I&#8217;m not an easy guy to stand with. I have a lot of power, and I&#8217;m not running away from kicks. I don&#8217;t run away from anything. I hold my ground. I&#8217;ll be coming for him, and anything he dishes out I&#8217;ll be answering back twice as hard.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Strikeforce lightweight champion, Gilbert Melendez tells <a href=\"http:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/1444595-gilbert-melendez-calls-out-bendo-benson-henderson-is-the-fight-i-want\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Bleacher Report<\/a> that he is ready for a champion vs. champion bout to prove he is the best lightweight fighter in the world. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I want to fight Benson Henderson. I think a champion versus champion fight makes absolute sense right now. I think we already know how things are going to work out between Benson Henderson and a lot of other lightweight fighters in the UFC, but I&#8217;m that mystery fighter. No one really knows how I&#8217;m going [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2616,"featured_media":47321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[2681],"tags":[131,382,11,649,864,867,15,16],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gilbert Melendez Wants A Unification Bout With Benson Henderson | UFC NEWS | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/gilbert-melendez-wants-a-unification-bout-with-benson-henderson-ufc-news\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gilbert Melendez Wants A Unification Bout With Benson Henderson | UFC NEWS | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8220;I want to fight Benson Henderson. I think a champion versus champion fight makes absolute sense right now. I think we already know how things are going to work out between Benson Henderson and a lot of other lightweight fighters in the UFC, but I&#8217;m that mystery fighter. 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