Fighters.com was live at the Strikeforce: Destruction weigh-ins Thursday night at the Hotel DeAnza in San Jose. All fighters made weigh and, despite a delayed start and “Diesel” Joe Riggs’s (28-11) displeasure at having to strip, everything went smoothly. Riggs was not the only one who had to strip further than his ginch; the California State Athletic Commission requested that each fighter have only one crack at the scale, resulting in several weigh-ins behind towels. Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion Bobby Southworth (9-4) looked cut.  He told Fighters.com Thursday afternoon that he had hired a new strength and conditioning coach. “Everybody’s been commenting on how my physique looks and how I’ve been performing.  So we’ll see how I perform tomorrow night,” Southworth said. Join Fighters.com Friday night for the live results. ...

Strikeforce has confirmed the full line-up for its Destruction event, which takes place 21 November in San Jose. Two title fights, between Strikeforce Lightweight Champion “The Punk” Josh Thomson (14-2-1) and Yves Edwards (34-14-1) and between Light Heavyweight Champion Bobby Southworth (9-4) and “Babalu” Renato Sobral (29-8), will headline the event. Also featured is a welterweight bout between “Diesel” Joe Riggs (28-10) and Luke Stewart (4-1). The rest of the card includes: Lemont Davis (1-2) versus Brian Schwartz (0-1) at 175 lbs Brad Royster (1-1) versus Darren Uyenoyama (4-1) at 135 lbs Tony Johnson (0-1) versus Eric Lawson (2-2) at 185 lbs Alvin Cacdac (3-4) versus Jose Palacios (1-1) at  145 lbs Bobby Stack (2-1) versus Cyrillo Padilha (1-1) at 155 lbs Zakary Bucia (0-1) versus Jaime Rodriguez (0-0) at 155 lbs Kurt Osiander (2-0) versus Raul Castillo (2-0) at 185 lbs Nik Theotikos (5-0) versus Luke Rockhold (2-1) at 185 lbs ...

"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. ...