Josh Thomson takes decision over Gesias Cavalcante on Strikeforce card
With a somewhat controversial win over Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante on Saturday night’s Strikeforce card, Josh Thomson has most likely lined himself up for a third fight with Strikeforce lightweight
champion Gilbert Melendez.
JZ was once considered one of the top lightweight fighters in all of mixed martial arts, competing mostly in K-1 kickboxing evens and on DREAM MMA cards. The fight with Thomson was his
first for Strikeforce.
Coming into this fight Thomson had only one Strikeforce loss on his resume, and that loss (to Melendez in December 2009) cost him the Strikeforce lightweight belt. The fight with Melendez
had followed a 15-month lay-off due to injuries and many attributed the loss to “ring rust” on the part of Thomson.
The first real action in Saturday’s bout took place when Thomson was tagged behind the ear with a right from Cavalcante. The punch hurt Thomson and he went for a defensive takedown. The
takedown was not successful and Cavalcante clamped on a guillotine choke. Thomson’s arm was in the hold, preventing Cavalcante from getting full pressure on the neck. While in the choke, Thomson threw some nice body shots and was eventually able to break free
and land some nice strikes of his own. The round ended with Thomson applying an arm triangle choke on Cavalcante. The bell rang and that may have helped save Cavalcante from being choked out.
Cavalcante got the second round action going by taking Thomson to the cage as he held Thomson there he threw a knee and followed that up with a left to the head. Thomson reversed things
and landed a few knee strikes. Thomson was eventually able to get the fight to the ground where he gained Cavalcante’s back. Thomson’s arms were tied up he was unable to inflict any punishment from this position. As the round neared its end Thomson was able
to free his hands and throw some strikes as the bell sounded.
The fight looked pretty even as the final round began with both fighters looking a little gassed. Cavalcante took Thomson down, but he was able to escape and gain full guard. Not a great
deal of action took place in this round until Cavalcante started to feel the need to take the fight out of the judges hands near the two minute mark when he started landing some nice strikes and took full mount. The last minute was spent with Cavalcante alternating
between throwing strikes and riding Thomson. For his part, Thomson was active from the bottom, looking for a few submission holds that he could not get to stick.
The fight went to the cards and Thomson was awarded the unanimous decision with the cards reading, 29-28, 29-28, and 30-27. This one could have gone either way.
During his interview in the ring, Thomson calls out the judge who scored the fight 30-27, saying “there’s no way” he won 30-27.
Going into the fight Thomson was pretty banged up and he stated he would take a month off to recover after this fight to make sure he is in good shape before training for his next fight
sometime in early 2011.
With the win, Thomson moved his overall MMA record to 18-3-0 while Cavalcante fell to 15-4-1.
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