This time, Melendez won't play it safe in UFC title bout

After losing his first bid for the Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight title by the slimmest possible margin — one point on one judge's scorecard made the difference between victory and defeat — Gilbert Melendez allowed himself to be bitter for about an hour, he says.

Then he let it go and moved on, or so he would have us believe.

"I really thought I won," Melendez tells Paste BN Sports about his split-decision loss to champion Benson Henderson in April 2013. "I think the majority of people who watched it thought I won. That helped, honestly."

What it didn't do was put the belt around his waist, of which Melendez (22-3 mixed martial arts, 1-1 UFC) is all too aware as he heads into his second shot at the title against champion Anthony Pettis (17-2, 4-1) on Saturday in UFC 181 in Las Vegas (10 p.m. ET, pay-per-view).

At 32, Melendez isn't kidding himself about his future if he comes up short again. He joined the UFC after the company purchased rival promotion Strikeforce, where Melendez reigned as lightweight champ. But UFC gold is still the holy grail for most fighters, and Melendez knows the path back to a title shot only gets tougher with every failed bid.

"I know this will probably be my last chance at a title," Melendez says. "If it's not, it will at least be a couple years before I get another shot at it. I realize I'm in the late third quarter of my career and this is my chance. This is my chance to not only perform but to really just go for it."

That, Melendez says, means no split decisions, preferably no judges at all, and no conservative game plans like the one he admits he used against Henderson.

Melendez points out, however, that was the last fight on his contract and his first in the UFC. There were reasons to play it a little bit safe, especially because he felt like he was winning on the scorecards down the stretch. It wasn't until he heard the judges' scores read aloud that he realized he was wrong.

"Going through that experience and knowing where I'm at now, those reasons aren't there anymore," Melendez says. "This time I'm going to go for it and get knocked out in the process or else knock him out."

Pettis thinks it's going to be the former, and the champ doesn't expect it to take more than a round. A bold prediction, to be sure, but not inconsistent with Pettis' recent performances. He finished his last three UFC opponents in the first round, each with significant help from his dangerous kicking game.

But when Melendez hears Pettis promising a first-round finish against him, "I kind of have to laugh," he says.

"No one's ever finished me, ever," says Melendez, whose three losses have all come by decision. The opponents Pettis has put away in the first, he adds, might have contributed to their own demise by allowing themselves to become awed by Pettis' aggressive kicking game.

"That's not going to be the case with me," Melendez says. "I can't wait to see his face at the end of the first round, when he knows he's down one round to zero and realizes he's in for a long night."

Fowlkes writes for MMAjunkie.com.