2.) His teammate Gilbert Melendez may not have his flash, but he does have a much better track record:
Diaz’ good friend and teammate Gilbert Melendez recently got a huge contract extension and a title shot against Anthony Pettis after threatening to leave for rival Bellator, and that was after “El Nino” only had one UFC win over a fading Diego Sanchez.
But former Strikeforce champion Melendez has won eight out of his past nine bouts, and his only loss in that span was a controversial split decision to Henderson at UFC on FOX 7. Melendez may not pull off the arm-flexing triangle chokes or flip off his opponents before rounds, but he simply gets the job done on a more consistent basis than Diaz.
The younger Diaz brother recently said that he was fine playing No. 2 to Melendez’ No. 1, but that sounds like an extremely optimistic prognostication given the state of the stacked lightweight division.
Melendez is certainly ahead of him, but it could easily be argued that many other fighters are as well. Diaz can prove that is not the case by defeating dos Anjos, who recently knocked out Henderson in a shocking bout at UFC Fight Night 49.
If he doesn’t, he’ll be far behind Melendez and a host of other world-class contenders, and that’s no way to get a big raise from Dana White.
