Josh Thomson scored a lopsided five-round unanimous decision victory over Gilbert Melendez last night at San Jose, California's HP Pavilion to capture the Strikeforce lightweight championship.

Thomson, fighting for the first time after a nine-month layoff due to shoulder injury and a staph infection, dominated all five rounds on the judges' scorecards with superior striking and well-timed takedowns en route to the title before 7,448 fans.

As the fight wore on, Thomson, aware he was taking over, seemed to loosen up, smiling even during the course of battle with Melendez, a friend and former training partner.

In a light-heavyweight title match, champion Bobby Southworth retained his belt and avenged a previous loss with a unanimous decision over Anthony Ruiz.

Southworth nearly won with a first-round armbar that Ruiz survived, and the two both struggled to mount any real threats to the other man en route to the lackluster decision.

Highly touted kickboxer Raymond Daniels suffered a rear-naked choke submission loss to Jeremiah Metcalf in his MMA debut. Metcalf took him down early and often, and nearly finished the fight in the first round before ultimately ending the action 59 seconds into the second.

Full results
Josh Thomson def. Gilbert Melendez via unanimous decision
Bobby Southworth def. Anthony Ruiz via unanimous decision
Billy Evangelista def. Nam Phan via unanimous decision
Miesha Tate def. Elaina Maxwell via unanimous decision
Jeremy Metcalf def. Raymond Daniels via rear naked choke, Rd. 2
Chris Cariaso def. Anthony Figueroa via rear naked choke, Rd. 2
Bobby Stack def. Jose Palacios via unanimous decision
Bryan Caraway def. Alvin Cacdac via rear naked choke, Rd. 1
Eric Lawson def. Jesse Gillespie via rear naked choke, Rd. 1
Cyrillo Padhillo def. Jesse Jones via unanimous decision
Jorge Interiano def. Travis Johnson via TKO, Rd. 2
Alexander Trivino def. Eric Jacob via arm bar, Rd. 1

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