Reports today suggest that a major lightweight title fight between Ben Henderson and incoming Strikeforce champ Gilbert Melendez is in the works.
According to MMAfighting.com the UFC’s plan is to schedule this title unification bout for ‘UFC On FOX 7’ on April 20th, though it’s not signed, sealed and delivered yet.
Melendez is heading over to the UFC after ruling the Strikeforce lightweight division with an iron fist over the course of a seven fight winning streak that’s saw him rise to No.3 on the world lightweight rankings.
That makes him the obvious choice for the next title shot over the likes of Donald Cerrone and Anthony Pettis who could potentially been fighting for No.1 contendership at ‘UFC On FOX 6’ later this month.
Of course Henderson currently tops the lightweight rankings, emerging as the dominant force at 155lbs after successive victories over Frankie Edgar and a convincing win over Nate Diaz last month which took the former WEC champion to 5-0 since joining the UFC.
If their plan does go ahead then this would be the third FOX event in a row to feature a title fight as the headliner, and the second to feature Henderson.
Overall it sounds like an exciting plan to me. This is one of the most marketable lightweight fights we’ve seen in quite some time and could easily have been a strong headliner for a pay-per-view event so it’d be a real coup for FOX and the biggest fight they’ve aired since the original Dos Santos Vs Velasquez heavyweight title fight.
