Watch UFC on FOX 10 headliner Josh Thomson go nuts over Melendez-Sanchez at UFC 166

Josh Thomson is plenty familiar with Gilbert Melendez.

In Strikeforce, Thomson and Melendez fought three times for the lightweight title – each fight going all five rounds. If you want to get all mathematical about it, Thomson has spent more than 25 percent of his career in a cage with Melendez, and given he’s got 26 fights in a career spanning more than 13 years, that’s a staggering number.

So it stands to reason that Thomson would have some interest in seeing his old foe – Melendez won the trilogy, going 2-1 with wins in 2009 and 2012 – square off against fellow scrapper Diego Sanchez.

And he was interested indeed. The UFC miked Thomson up for the Melendez-Sanchez fight on the main card of UFC 166 this past October. Melendez won that fight by unanimous decision, but it was quickly regarded as a leader for “Fight of the Year,” and Joe Rogan said immediately afterward the back-and-forth bloody slugfest was the best fight he’d ever seen.

Check out the video of Thomson cageside at UFC 166 for Melendez-Sanchez. Then don’t miss Thomson (20-5 MMA, 3-1 UFC) on Saturday as he fights Benson Henderson (19-3 MMA, 6-0 UFC) in the main event of UFC on FOX 10.

For complete coverage of UFC 166, visit the UFC Events section of the site. And for the latest on UFC on FOX 10, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.