Mitsuhiro Ishida

(Nine months later, Cris gave birth to a litter of wolverines. Photo courtesy of YorkBlog.com.)

Wow, TGIF you guys, amirite? We might as well give away some obsolete t-shirts. (Don't worry, a new design is in the works. These things take time.) This week's big winners are...

Sneaky Pete on "Scott Coker Viciously Punk'd by Cris Cyborg": Of all the parties involved with the prank, I think the hypothetical baby was the most relieved.

agentsmith on "Mitsuhiro Ishida Claims Gilbert Melendez Was Greasy": I'm reserving judgement on this matter until I hear what Ishida's mother has to say.

And finally, a "Classic MMA Moments Recreated in MS Paint" submission that hits very close to home...

(Photo courtesy of Strikeforce.)

As first reported by f4wonline.com and confirmed by FiveOuncesofPain, members of Mitsuhiro Ishida's camp have issued a verbal complaint to the California State Athletic Commission that Gilbert Melendez was illegally greased up during their fight at Saturday's Strikeforce event. Melendez defeated Ishida by third-round TKO in a one-sided match marked by Melendez's flawless counter-punching and takedown defense. During their first meeting in 2007, Ishida was able to control Melendez with his takedowns and grappling, which could explain why Ishida thought something didn't feel right in San Jose. Melendez, of course, dismissed the charges as ludicrous, telling Sherdog:

Ishida has until the end of the week to file a formal complaint in writing if he wants to further pursue the charge. As we've seen in the past, greasing accusations can be effective if you're Japanese, and the guy who beat you is Korean, and the fight took place in Japan. It's a lot harder to find sympathy in the U.S., even when you have an entire music video's worth of evidence.

(Props: Mad Xyientist)

While cruising MMAMoneyline earlier today, I was rather surprised to see Gilbert Melendez as a solid favorite to beat Mitsuhiro Ishida in their Strikeforce interim lightweight title fight on Saturday. After all, Ishida defeated Melendez by decision at Yarennoka! less than two years ago. It was a very close match — and maybe the decision could have gone the other way if it didn't take place in Ishida's home country — but Melendez never really put Ishida in serious danger at any point in the fight (expect for when he slammed Ishida on his head, at the 4:12 mark above), nor could he find many answers for the Endless Fighter's grappling; Ishida's aggressive wrestling and nonstop pace was absolutely Guida-esque. On the other hand, they'll be on Melendez's home turf for the rematch, and Ishida is coming off a nasty TKO loss to Mizuto Hirota. It's a pick 'em, and the winner will take on Josh Thomson...someday. Part one of their first meeting is above, and part two is after the jump.

(Mizuto Hirota vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida; props to MMA Scraps)

Shooto's "Final Tradition" event, held yesterday in Tokyo, produced an action-packed card that was highlighted by Takanori Gomi snapping his two-fight losing streak. The Fireball Kid looked fit and focused in his non-title-fight against Shooto welterweight champ Takashi Nakakura, getting the better of Nakakura in striking exchanges en route to a knockout victory at the end of the second round. In the night's main event, Rumina Sato pushed the pace against Shooto lightweight champ Takeshi Inoue with a creative arsenal of striking, rocking Inoue with punches near the end of the first round, but Inoue hung on and managed to stop Sato in a shocking turnaround.

Elsewhere on the card, Mitsuhiro Ishida suffered a surprising loss against Mizuto Hirota, who flattened Ishida with a left hook just 90 seconds into their bout and threw down more punches until he scored the victory; it was arguably an early stoppage, as Ishida was trying to tie up Hirota's legs and get to his feet when the ref stopped the fight. In the night's sole women's feature, undefeated submission buzzsaw Megumi Fujii tore through kickboxer Won Bu Chu in less than a minute.

Full results and videos of the Gomi, Inoue, and Fujii fights (courtesy of NelsaoCB) after the jump...

(Megumi Fujii: 52 kilos of walking death.)

Yeah, we pretty much slept on this card since mentioning it once like two months ago — that's our bad, and we're just going to have to live with it — but Shooto Tradition is having its star-studded "Road to 20th Anniversary Final" show this Sunday in Tokyo, featuring lightweight PRIDE legend Takanori Gomi, unstoppable female fighter Megumi Fujii, and more big names. Unfortunately it won't televised in the U.S., but we promise to get all the best fight vids up by Monday. Nightmare of Battle passes along the compete lineup, which is after the jump, and quite sick-looking...