Gilbert Melendez , was born on the 12th of April, 1982 and is nick named "El Nino". Melendez comes from Santa Ana in California and is a famous Mexican-American mixed martial art professional fighter. He has trained with other well known mixed martial arts fighters such as Cesar Gracie,  Jake Shields, Dave Terrell, Nick Diaz et al. However he currently trains in the San Franciso area, under the guidance of Cesar Gracie. He also competes in the lighweight divison. Melendez has won many fights and is the Strikeforce Lightweight Champion, with a record of 13-0 that has been undefeated. Melendez has also won victories over famous Japanese fighters such as Rumina Sato,  Tetsuji Kato etc.

Gilbert Melendez is well known for the following Titles:  Rumble on the Rock Superfight Champ, WEC Lightweight World Champion, IFC Tournament Champion and Shooto #1 World Contender. Gilbert Melendez belongs to team - Team Fairtex  located at  San Francisco (USA) and is famous for Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu Style and has a record of 15-0-0. Melendez has an undefeated record of 13-0 and is the Strikeforce Lightweight Champion.

Melendez has made name for himself by his aggressive nature and a crowd-pleasing fighting style. In recent times, Gilbert Melendez has won against Tetsuji Kato at Strikeforce. It is said that Gilbert Melendez, who returns to Strikeforce after a two-fight stay with Pride, his perfect 12-0 record will be at stake. The MMA record of  Gilbert Melendez is very interesting in 2007 he has won over Tetsuji Kato. In 2006 Gilbert Melendez won over Tatsuya Kawajiri, Nobuhiro Obiya, Clay Guida and Harris Sarmiento. In the year 2005 he won Rumina Sato and Naoya Uematsu TKO Shooto. TKO ROTR and TKO WEC of 2003 were interesting in which Gilbert Melendez won Kaynan Kaku, Stephen Palling, Olaf Alfonso and Jeff Hougland respectively. At TKO WEC 5 Gilbert Melendez won Greg Quan.

Unfortuantely due to an injury to the elbow, "El Nino" Melendez was forced to withdraw
from a fight at Pride Bushido 13 , that he was due to fight against  Shinya Aoki.  While this injury did stop him from the fight, it did not stop Melnedez from watching the show from the ringside, and he watched Aoki defeating his opponent. Having won, Aoki challenged Melendez while speaking on the microphone, which he accepted and stepped on to the ring without hesitation.

Strikeforce lightweight champion, Gilbert Melendez, is considered to be one of the most promising fighters in mixed martial arts today. He is ranked # 10 in is weight class, currently, in the MMA Weekly's ratings. He is also regarded as amongst the top 5 of all the Lightweight fighters in the world and is well known for his punches. Furthermore it often said that Melendez would be a great addition to the UFC lighweight divison and is considered as a threat to other champions, should he sign up with them. Melendez's  reply to this saying he is satisfied with his current status and it's no big deal.