CBS Saturday Night Fights/Strikeforce Nashville Results: Gilbert Melendez Dominates a Frustrated Shinya Aoki

Gilbert Melendez survived one very dangerous submission attempt from Shinya Aoki but otherwise utterly dominated for five rounds to take a unanimous decision. Melendez' wrestling, boxing and utterly defensive jiu jitsu out classed Aoki's offensive submission game.

The utterly one dimensional Shinya Aoki challenged two-dimensional Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez in the second fight of Strikeforce's CBS Saturday Night Fights from Nashville. Melendez looked to avoid getting close to Aoki early. After the crowd booed, Melendez took a poke in the eye. Then Aoki somehow got the fight to the ground and immediately threatened a triangle armbar from his back. The second take down saw Melendez scoring with effective punches from the top and stymying Aoki's submission attempts. Back on the feet Aoki ate a lot of punches from the far superior boxer Melendez.

The between round highlights showed exactly how Aoki got that first take down and it was amazing and instantly transitioned to a submission threat.

Round two saw Melendez land a sharp uppercut on a shooting Aoki. About a minute in, Aoki got the fight to the ground but at the cost of being on his back against a very dangerous Melendez, the division's best ground and pounder. Mario Yamasaki stood the fight up with 3:45 left. Melendez ate a surprise left hook to start the action. Then Aoki complained to the ref about Melendez holding the back of his head -- which isn't against the rules. Aoki dove to guard and paid with some damage before another restart. Melendez ended the round with another take down and landed more hard shots.

Aoki shot and fought hard for a take down to open the third. Melendez fought it off but quickly went back to Aoki's guard. Ref Mario Yamasaki wouldn't let Aoki use his unique offensive butt scoot, forcing two unnecessary stand ups, the first one visibly shocking Aoki. Melendez really opened up on Aoki with about a minute left. Landing a shocking series of hard right hands. Yamasaki stood up the action again, and again it wasn't necessary. Aoki landed one hard knee standing but took several punches.

In the fourth round Yamasaki once again interrupted the action and forced a stand up on a crabwalking Aoki. Stand ups should only force action, not stop action.

Final round. Melendez easily outboxed Aoki on his feet. And Yamasaki made it clear that he was going to impose American rules on the foreign fighter. So that let Melendez lazily cruze through the round landing single punches at will and some combos. Then Aoki butt flopped again and Melendez landed a crushing flying punch. But Ref Mario Yamasaki made an inexplicable stop and let Aoki stand up and recover. Apparently Yamasaki was in motion to force another unnecessary stand up when Melendez landed the shot. Then Aoki claimed an eye poke. Once back on their feet Melendez landed another hard shot. Aoki got guard again and instantly went for rubber guard but Melendez forced his own head into the cage and cut off that threat. Aoki shot in and pulled guard with a minute left but Gilbert stood up and backed away. Aoki butt flopped again and Melendez landed hard shots form the top. Gilbert ended the fight raging with punches and finishing strong.