Sherdog’s Top 10Sherdog’s Top 10: UFC Lightweight Title Fights
No. 8
UFC 181
Dec. 6, 2014 | Las Vegas
Pettis did what Josh Thomson, Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Jorge Masvidal, Diego Sanchez, Clay Guida, Benson Henderson and so many others could not: He finished Melendez. The man they call “Showtime” submitted Melendez with a second-round guillotine choke to retain the lightweight championship in the UFC 181 co-main event at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. A former Strikeforce and World Extreme Cagefighting titleholder who had never before been finished, Melendez asked out of the match 1:53 into Round 2. Melendez enjoyed early success with repeated clinches, close-quarters punching exchanges and takedowns. Pettis did not flinch and responded to the adversity in spectacular fashion. The gifted champion cracked Melendez with a short right hook in the second round and slowly started to establish his foothold in the match. Later, he countered a takedown attempted by snatching and sitting down on the guillotine. Pettis then rolled into a mounted position, forcing the tapout from “El Nino.”
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