"New York Bad Ass" Phil Baroni (13-10) extended his "W" streak to three with a one-sided UD over Mexican welterweight Olaf Alfonso (7-9) Friday night in Lemoore, southeast of San Francisco. Baroni got cut early, but tagged Alfonso with punches and floored him with takedowns the majority of the fight. Bryan Travers (11-1) picked up the Palace Fighting Championship welterweight title with a close UD over Jeremiah Metcalf (9-6) by scores of 48-47 on all three judges' score cards. Shawn Klarcyk (9-2) defended his PFC Bantamweight Championship from Brandon Miller (3-3) by armbar at 2:19 of round two. PFC Lightweight Champion Brian Cobb (13-4) also fought off David Gardner's (14-10) advances on his gold in a UD by scores of 50-45 from all three judges. ...

"Punk" Josh Thomson (15-2) won a five-round unanimous decision over "El Niño" Gilbert Melendez (14-2) for the Strikeforce lightweight title Friday night in San Jose by scores of 50-45 on all three cards. "[Melendez] is the toughest motherfucker I've ever fought," Thomson declared after dominating the former top ten 155-pounder. In the final round, Thomson landed a front kick to Melendez's face as if to say, "All night, Gil" All night, Thomson kept Melendez at bay with a front kick. And, when Melendez passed that, he got zapped with a jab, and a hammered with a knee after that. Melendez stalked for five rounds, right hand cocked; but, Thomson never set long enough for Melendez to get a beat on him with his knockout punch. In the fourth and fifth rounds, Thomson shot and scored takedowns, nearly finding a rear naked choke as the fourth round dinged closed. But, Melendez was just out-kickboxed in every round and gassed trying to corner Thomson for the big shot. Stack Attacks Palacios Crowd favorite Bobby Stack (5-1) out-wrestled lightweight San Shou fighter Jose Palacios (3-1) over three rounds for a UD by scores of 29-28 three times. The southpaw Palacios's right hook over Stack's jab convinced Stack to take the fight to the mat after that punch popped Stack's mouthpiece free in the first round. Stack took damage for the single-leg shots, but muscled Palacios down and nearly sank an armbar with 25 seconds left in round two. Stack declined the stand-up again in the third session and rode Palacios across the mat most of the round, though Palacios defended adeptly. The "W" was sealed in the last half of the round when Stack mounted and landed shots to Palcios's head. ...