‘The Punk’ and ‘El Nino‘ want to take on the world in 2010

Clark Kent

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12-20-2009 06:45 PM:

Josh &ldquo;The Punk&rdquo; Thomson and Gilbert &ldquo;El Nino&rdquo; Melendez are thirsting for more respect.They closed 2009 with an absolute top five candidate for Fight of the Year setting up another chapter in a trilogy somewhere down the road. Both fighters said that can wait because now they want to send a message to rest of the top lightweights around the world.

Melendez, who moved to 17-2 by winning back his Strikeforce lightweight title via unanimous five-round decision, suggested that the rankings are ridiculous and he feels dissed (2:15 mark).

"Now that we got our stuff done with, it&rsquo;s up to us to prove we&rsquo;re the best 55ers," said Melendez, who is ranked 13th in the USAToday/Bloody Elbow lightweight top 25. "Me and him are badass. I think me and him can take out all the dudes in UFC and all the dudes in DREAM. It&rsquo;s about the respect. We can beat a lot of those guys. We&rsquo;re complete MMA fighters. A lot of guys aren't."

Thomson dropped down to No. 24 after the loss.

"We&rsquo;ve delivered great fights. Now it&rsquo;s time for us to keep pushing [Scott Coker] to bring in the bigger name fighters and for Gilbert and I to start laying them out," said Thomson, "I welcome them with closed fists."

Coker, the Strikeforce CEO, said he&rsquo;s headed to Japan for the Dynamite! 2009 New Year&rsquo;s Eve show. His goal is to get DREAM&rsquo;s lightweight prodigy, Shinya Aoki, to agree to a 2010 fight against Melendez. Next up for Thomson may be recently signed K.J, Noons, the former 155 champ with EliteXC.

Even if you don&rsquo;t respect their cage work you have to rank both as top 10 fighters from a sportsmanship and class standpoint.

Thomson gave a great salute in the cage and during the post fight to his conqueror. After two wars, fighters aren&rsquo;t always so cordial but Melendez and Thomson hugged, laughed and joked. The new champ paid respect to Thomson by saying he&rsquo;s had enough of the guy (0:30 mark).

"There&rsquo;s gonna be a third one, huh? I&rsquo;m not looking forward to it. I left my heart out there. I don&rsquo;t know if they showed it on TV but I puked a little bit afterwards. I think we put on a great show. I&lsquo;m cool with calling it even," said Melendez.

"Just like rocky, I don&rsquo;t want another one," Thomson chimed in with his best Rocky Balboa. &ldquo;There ain&rsquo;t gonna be a third."

Thomson also delivered the line of the night (8:31 mark) when asked about how their cardio was so good for five round. A favorite of female MMA fans, The Punk said, "lots of sex!"



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Cagewriter is an MMA blog edited by Steve Cofield.
 

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