"This fight with Gilbert has been a long time coming and we're ready to do it," said Thomson, a resident of San Jose. "It's not as if we need a feeling out period. We both know each other very well. We've trained together, we've sparred together. We're gonna come out ready for five rounds, but we're gonna bang it out."

Regarding the condition of his shoulder, Thomson is optimistic. "As we're training, it's getting stronger so we're just taking it one day at a time," he stated.

Prior to joining the ranks of Strikeforce, Thomson, a member of San Jose's Team AKA, established a reputation for being one of the sport's most gifted athletes. A pair of victories in The UFC, including a majority judges' decision over Hermes Franca four years ago, and a win in PRIDE are amongst the feats that have helped him achieve stardom.

During "Shamrock vs. Baroni," the first-ever SHOWTIME PPV mixed martial arts event on June 22, 2007, Thomson reintroduced himself to a national audience, submitting Nick "The Ghost" Gonzalez with a rear naked choke at the 1:42 mark of the fight's first round.

HP Pavilion doors will open at 6 PM for "Melendez vs. Thomson" and the first preliminary bout will begin at 6:30 PM. The main card will commence at 8 PM.

About Strikeforce:
Strikeforce is a world-class mixed martial arts cage fight promotion which, on Friday, March 10, 2006, made history with its "Shamrock vs. Gracie" event, the first sanctioned mixed martial arts fight card in California state history. The star-studded extravaganza, which pitted legendary champion Frank Shamrock against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Cesar Gracie at San Jose's HP Pavilion, played host to a sold-out, record crowd of 18,265. Since 1995, Strikeforce has been the exclusive provider of martial arts programming for ESPN and, after 12 years of success as a leading, world championship kickboxing promotion, the company unveiled its mixed martial arts series with "Shamrock vs. Gracie." Since then, it has co-produced the first SHOWTIME PPV mixed martial arts event in history with its world championship "Shamrock vs. Baroni" card on June 22, 2007.