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History · 2013 · UFC on FOX: Henderson vs Melendez · Benson Henderson vs Gilbert Melendez
From the tape · 20 Apr 2013

Benson Henderson vs Gilbert Melendez

UFC on FOX: Henderson vs Melendez · San Jose, California, USA
Result

Benson Henderson beat Gilbert Melendez

Method
Decision - Split
Round
5 of 5
Clock
5:00
Lightweight TitleTitle fightMainReferee · John McCarthy

We published no prediction for this bout. Everything on this page is the official record and the tape it was fought on — the result, the round-by-round counts, the judges’ cards where they exist and the sportsbook line where one was published. Our graded calls start in 2026 and live on the public record.

BH
Red corner BensonHenderson“Smooth”MMA Lab · Glendale, Arizona
VSOn the tape
GM
Blue corner GilbertMelendez“El Nino”Skrap Pack · San Francisco, California
Lightweight Title5 rounds20 Apr 2013
The story going in
  • Comes in on a 6-fight win streak.
  • Is 12 points more accurate striking than Melendez.
24-7
Record
22-8
−2 yr29
Age
31
5' 9"
Height
5' 9"
70″
Reach
+3″73″
Southpaw
Stance
Orthodox
MMA Lab
Gym
Skrap Pack
Glendale, Arizona
From
San Francisco, California
Vitals, record, nickname and camp come from the public UFC fighter register and are current, not a snapshot of fight night. UFC bouts, finish rate and every storyline line are counted off the official UFC fight record. A tick marks the side holding the raw edge in that row — longer reach, taller, younger, more bouts, a higher finish rate. It is a fact about the tape, not a prediction, and rows with no clean comparison (record, stance, gym, hometown) carry no tick at all. Any row we cannot fill on both sides is left out rather than half-drawn. Streaks, bout counts and finish rates are as they stood going into this fight — this bout and everything after it is excluded from the count.

Round by round

Every round the fight went, shaded by where the significant strikes actually landed — the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them, and how the three judges scored that round.

UFCStats · per round

5 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action
Benson Henderson9 sig landed
HEAD11%1 of 7BODY11%1 of 1LEGS78%7 of 9
Gilbert Melendez7 sig landed
HEAD14%1 of 19BODY14%1 of 3LEGS71%5 of 7
9 of 17
Sig.
strikes
7 of 29
0 of 0
Take-
downs
1 of 1
0:38
Control
0:44
Distance 9Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 5Clinch 1Ground 1
Judges · this round · Henderson firstMichael Bell9–10Derek Cleary9–10Wade Vierra9–10
Round 25:00 of action
Benson Henderson15 sig landed
HEAD40%6 of 31BODY40%6 of 6LEGS20%3 of 4
Gilbert Melendez13 sig landed
HEAD38%5 of 38BODY31%4 of 4LEGS31%4 of 5
15 of 41
Sig.
strikes
13 of 47
0 of 1
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:00
Control
0:00
Distance 13Clinch 2Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 9Clinch 4Ground 0
Judges · this round · Henderson firstMichael Bell10–9Derek Cleary9–10Wade Vierra10–9
Round 35:00 of action
Benson Henderson15 sig landed
HEAD33%5 of 18BODY33%5 of 6LEGS33%5 of 5
Gilbert Melendez7 sig landed
HEAD29%2 of 27BODY43%3 of 3LEGS29%2 of 2
15 of 29
Sig.
strikes
7 of 32
0 of 1
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:45
Control
0:00
Distance 10Clinch 3Ground 2
Where it
happened
Distance 6Clinch 1Ground 0
Judges · this round · Henderson firstMichael Bell10–9Derek Cleary10–9Wade Vierra10–9
Round 45:00 of action
Benson Henderson15 sig landed
HEAD20%3 of 24BODY27%4 of 4LEGS53%8 of 10
Gilbert Melendez8 sig landed
HEAD25%2 of 23BODY75%6 of 6LEGS0%0 of 1
15 of 38
Sig.
strikes
8 of 30
0 of 2
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:05
Control
0:07
Distance 13Clinch 2Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 6Clinch 2Ground 0
Judges · this round · Henderson firstMichael Bell10–9Derek Cleary10–9Wade Vierra9–10
Round 55:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Benson Henderson14 sig landed
HEAD36%5 of 30BODY29%4 of 5LEGS36%5 of 6
Gilbert Melendez8 sig landed
HEAD75%6 of 48BODY25%2 of 4LEGS0%0 of 1
14 of 41
Sig.
strikes
8 of 53
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:00
Control
0:01
Distance 13Clinch 1Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 8Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Henderson firstMichael Bell9–10Derek Cleary10–9Wade Vierra9–10

Significant strikes, takedowns, control time, knockdowns and submission attempts exactly as UFCStats recorded them for this bout, round by round. Zone percentages are that round’s landed head, body and leg counts over their own total — raw arithmetic, nothing modelled or smoothed. A round in which a fighter landed nothing shades empty and reads zero; it is never filled in from the round before.

The cards, totalled

The judges’ final totals, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score. Their round-by-round 10–9s are with the rounds above.

Official card

Split Decision

Referee · John McCarthy
Benson HendersonGilbert Melendez
Official totals — Benson Henderson first
JudgeTotal
Michael Bell48–47
Derek Cleary2.0 avg spread · 42% wide48–47
Wade Vierra1.8 avg spread · 33% wide47–48

Each judge’s round-by-round scores sit with the round they belong to, in the round-by-round section above — switch a round there and the three cards for it change with the stats.

Media cards — 13 scored, Benson Henderson first · unofficial

Fight Metric.com50–48
Tristen Critchfield Sherdog.com48–47
Mike Whitman Sherdog.com48–47
MM AWeekly.com48–47
Craig Amos BleacherReport.com48–47
Luke Thomas MMAFighting.com48–47
John Pollock Fight Network48–47
Adam Martin Sportsnet.ca47–48
Jason Floyd TheMMAReport.com47–48
MM AJunkie.com47–48
Chris Nelson Sherdog.com47–48
Nathan McCarter BleacherReport.com47–48
Brent Brookhouse BloodyElbow.com46–49

Fan vote · unofficial

48-47 Melendez · 47%48-47 Henderson · 29%49-46 Melendez · 6%49-46 Henderson · 4%

412 fan cards submitted to MMA Decisions.

Official cards come from the UFCStats fight record and MMA Decisions. Media cards and the fan vote are MMA Decisions’ own collection and are not official. Judge tendency figures are that judge’s whole recorded history, not this bout — they are context for how a card was scored, never a claim that it was scored wrongly.

Takedowns

Takedowns

The level change — head to head

Career UFC takedown rates. Red corner left, blue corner right.

Benson Henderson

2.40takedowns / 15 min
2.40 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
1.64 / 15m
5.33 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
4.00 / 15m
45%
ACCURACY
41%
0.80 / 15m
SUB ATT
0.20 / 15m

Gilbert Melendez

1.64takedowns / 15 min

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average. Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (5.32 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked roster-wide

The market story

Where the price started and where it finished — the sportsbook consensus, with the vig removed. We captured no price series for this bout, so there is no chart to draw.

Benson Henderson↑ +5.6pp
open 68.9%close 74.5%
Gilbert Melendez↓ −5.6pp
open 31.1%close 25.5%
0%50%100%
OpenClosing consensus (BFO, vig removed)

Benson Henderson opened at 68.9% and closed at 74.5% (+5.6pp), with Gilbert Melendez moving the other way by the same amount — the two are one de-vigged pair, so they always sum to 100%. There is no line between those two points because nobody recorded one: we hold the open and the close for this bout, not the days in between.

Show the numbers
CornerOpen (US)Close (US)Open %Close %Move
Benson Henderson-280-32468.9%74.5%+5.6pp
Gilbert Melendez20028231.1%25.5%−5.6pp
Opening and closing moneylines from BestFightOdds (data/refs/bfo_fighter_moneylines.csv), one row per fighter per bout, de-vigged pairwise so the two corners sum to 100% · scraped 2026-06-10. No price series was captured for this bout, so no line is drawn between the two points.
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