Your round-tablers today:
Lee Casebolt (LC)
Dave Walsh (DW)
Alan Conceicao (AC)
Chris Henderson (CH)

Topics being discussed:
- Josh “The Punk” Thomson “punks” top fighter Gilbert Melendez out.
- Cung Le vs Kazuo Misaki rumored for Strikeforce.
- Bisping vs. Leben to Main Event UFC 89 in the UK.

Josh “The Punk” Thomson shocks most of us by not only beating Gil Melendez, but completely dominating him in San Jose on Friday. Some are shocked, but why? Josh Thomson has always been known as a great fighter.

LC: I don’t know if people were sleeping on Thomson or badly overrating Melendez, but if the announcing was correct and Melendez was a better than 3-1 favorite going in, that’s completely ridiculous.  The champ should be the favorite going in, but three to one?  The big compliment to Thomson has been for his excellent striking, which is valid, but it’s worth mentioning that he totally dominated the grappling, too.  By my count Thomson was six out of seven on takedown attempts, while Melendez got stuffed on all three of his.  It’s a lot easier to win a fight when you determine the venue, which is why the ”when in doubt, bet on the better wrestler” rule exists, and Thomson was in control basically every minute of this fight.

AC: Strikeforce was horrible Friday night. Really bad. I mean, some wasn’t their fault with a key fight scratched late, but still, the fights were murderous to watch outside of the main event. Even that was basically domination on the part of Thomson, but it was so stunning and complete. He really exposed the flaws in Melendez’s striking and even wrestling. Makes me think of comparing Melendez to Diego Sanchez in a way: Great wrestler against non-wrestler type.

CH: How exactly did the UFC let Thomson get away again?  Just a beautifully planned and executed gameplan from the Punk, doing something I never thought I’d see and beating Gilbert convincingly over five consecutive rounds.  It’s going to be interesting going forward to see who they match Thomson up with in his next fight (likely at the Playboy Mansion card).  Ryan Schulz?  Rodrigo Damm?  I would’ve said Thomson vs Masvidal would have been a fantastic choice until Jorge got KO’d at WVR.

How Gilbert responds to his second loss in three fights will be something to watch for as well.  He hasn’t beaten anybody of note since Kawajiri back on New Year’s Eve 2006.  I like seeing Melendez stateside, but I can’t help but get the feeling his career’s stalled out a bit since the demise of PRIDE.  I wouldn’t mind seeing him back in Shooto or perhaps in DREAM or WVR.

DW: Thomson’s win over Melendez is huge, huge, huge. I think everybody went into the fight expecting him to put up a great fight, but for Melendez to find a way to pull out the win. I don’t think that Melendez had an off night, either, I really do feel that Thomson just showed exactly how good he is. Not only beating, but dominating a guy like Melendez can only mean bigger things for him. The fact that everybody was just expecting Thomson to roll over for him is ridiculous, though. Other than that, the event was awful.

Cung Le vs Misaki seems to be set for Strikeforce in the near future, is this really the best fight at this weight class amongst free agents? Will Hollywood taint the aging Cung Le?

CH: Do I find Cung Le exciting?  Absolutely.  Is he a part of any of the numerous  mouthwatering fights I can envision for the 185 lb. weight class?  Not really.  Is Cung Le for real?  His best win is over a clearly past it Frank Shamrock, with everything else on his CV adding up to lopsided wins of journeymen and sacrificial lambs.  A win over Misaki would undoubtedly put Le among the top ten middleweights in the world.  But would Le even care?  The whispers that he’s considering a full-time future in acting have gotten louder, and there’s no guarantee that Le won’t depart for Hollywood, even after a victory.

AC: Jorge Santiago/Misaki may be better actually, but as far as a test for Le, Misaki beat Henderson. He’s a great measuring stick/gatekeeper/whatever parlance you like to use for guys like Misaki. As far ast standup goes, it would be pretty fantastic over 5 rounds.

DW: Kazuo Misaki seems like the kind of fight Scott Coker and crew would line up for Cung Le. Misaki is a very hit-or-miss fighter, with his biggest win in recent memory over Dan Henderson, and some gimme fights in Sengoku’s first 3 events. Cung Le is still, in the minds of many (including myself) untested, while there are others who view him as one of the best in the weight class. A win over Misaki most likely will not push Le up into the upper echelons of an already stacked division, but will help to prove that he is indeed a legit fighter who has more than a barely competitive sparring match over Frank Shamrock.

LC: Le/Misaki is an excellent matchup in terms of the talent involved.  Misaki has recent wins over Shooto champ Siyar Bahadurzada, Phil Baroni, Dan Henderson, and Denis Kang.  If he isn’t the best free agent available, he’s surely on the short list.  The downside is that he’s hardly a name opponent even amongst hardcore fans.  There’ll be a pretty large “huh?” quotient in the general population.  It should be a good fight, though, and could be one that puts Misaki’s name on the map in the States.  It’s certainly a more exciting middleweight main event than the UFC is planning on offering.

Bisping vs Leben seems set for the UFC 89 Main Event. It seems to simply be pandering to the U.K. audience and isn’t the strongest main event, or even possible match-up in the division.

DW: This is just confusingly bad. I understand the show will be in the UK and that Bisping is their lone draw, I also understand that Leben is a guy that he could easily dispose of in an exciting stand up fight — but that still doesn’t mean that I really have any desire to see this. UFC’s stint in the UK market has been rather dismal, and I doubt this will change things. What is worse is that somehow, in a stacked 185lbs division, this will probably have title match consequences to it, most likely before Okami gets his well-deserved shot. At least it is a step up from fighting homeless guys with “Boxcar” prefixed to their names, but not by much. I can see Leben headlining a trainyard show in a few years.

AC: This is the main event, and yeah, that fight sucks. This should be on SPIKE, but I have the feeling it will be PPV for some reason beyond my understanding.

LC: Bisping/Leben is exactly the kind of fight you give Michael Bisping to see how he ranks at 185.  Leben is tough, hits hard, and has both a decent submission game and a well-known name.  If Bisping beats him convincingly, he’s a viable title contender right now.  The next British PPV would surely be headlined by Silva/Bisping.  Call it UFC 93 - “The Count Is Down!” That said, I hate this as a main event.  I refuse to pay PPV rates for a main event between a gatekeeper and a borderline contender.

As for the fight itself, I’m expecting a lot of the sloppy bombs that Dana seems to be in love with.  I’ll be interested to see how Bisping approaches this fight.  Leben’s got a chin of granite and probably isn’t going to be KO’d by The Count.  But does Leben have the submission skills to exploit an area in which Bisping’s looked very vulnerable in previous fights?  And even if he does, will he want to try and submit Bisping, or try to stand and bang with him?  This fight is just screaming decision to me.