Gilbert Melendez proved why he was the lightweight champ after he destroyed Shinya Aoki last night.  Aoki is known as the 2^nd or best Lightweight in the world, but last night he had no answers for the fans.

Aoki, who is a submission specialist, seemed less then ready to faceoff in the cage.  Melendez seemed to dictate where the fight would go, always stuffing the takedowns from Aoki.

“I just wanted to show I’m a complete mixed martial artist,” Melendez told MMA Fighting. “There are lots of guys who are good at one thing or another, I think I’ve proven I can do it all.  That guy’s tricky, you make one mistake and he gets you,” he said. “It was around the third round, he was in deep and stuffed his shot. I saw the look on his face, and I thought, ‘I broke him.’ I knew he wasn’t going to be confident in his shot anymore and I couldn’t relax, but I felt like I had it.”

Aoki looked devastated as he broke down when he left the cage. Later, when asked about what the result meant towards the Japanese vs. American MMA debate, he said, “The result of the fight says everything.”

Take it from a real Aoki fan, this loss does not mean Japan can’t dominate in the cage.  It just means he need’s to get more practice inside a cage, and once he is able to pull it off, he’ll be back better then ever.