I am having an argument/discussion with a friend about Gilbert Melendez and how he would do in the UFC, and I hope to hear the opinion of the BloodyElbow community to help me with this.

We started talking about Anthony Pettis losing to Clay Guida, and he said, " It was pretty much what I expect from Pettis. I expect the same thing to happen to Melendez when he comes to the UFC."

I argue that Melendez's skillset in both wrestling and striking and level of competition that he has beaten outside of the UFC is very high level, and he retorted, "How did Pettis beat Henderson and Roller but with wrestling? Maynard, Edgar, Miller and Guida would all destroy Melendez, because fighting outside the UFC means very little."

I feel that the mentality that "fighting outside the UFC means very little" is greatly undervaluing fighters outside of the UFC. I personally feel that it also shows that these people that feel that way have the inability to "see" skill. For example, someone like Patricio Pitbull Freire fights for Bellator, not the UFC. However, many that see him could tell that he has a high level skillset and would probably do well in the UFC. They can "see" that he is well rounded and puts his skills together very well especially for a prospect. The counterargument would be that since he doesn't fight in the UFC, he looks good because he is not fighting high level fighters.

I am curious to see how the BE community feels about fighters outside of the UFC. Please comment below and tell me what you think.