Well, it looks like the UFC chose to set aside their long-held policy and actually matched Gilbert Melendez’s offer with Bellator.
Last week I wrote eight things that we could/should learn from Gilbert Melendez signing with Bellator, and this morning I was going to apply the same gimmick to Gilbert Melendez resigning with the UFC, but that’s just entirely too uncreative. However I will state that Gilbert Melendez just laid the blueprint for every UFC fighter that has a dispute with his/her contract. It’s quite simply, actually — use another promotion as leverage, and cross your fingers and pray to the MMA gods that things fall in your favor. We also see that Bellator is interested at going after high-scale free agents, and let’s face it the publicity the promotion received last week was not only more effective than any commercial they could have created, but it was absolutely free.
Now we get to see Anthony Pettis and Gilbert Melendez coach TUF 20, which will feature women’s strawweight competitors fighting for the inaugural UFC 115-pound strap. The show will begin filming in May and be released on September 10th on FOX Sports 1. These Cesar Gracie guys, they defect from their employer and are almost always awarded with a title shot. Genius.