Fodor (photo via Showtime / Strikeforce)

By Kelsey Mowatt

As 2012 began, Caros Fodor appeared to be one impressive win away from knocking on the door of Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez. After knocking out Justin Wilcox in just 13 seconds last December, and recording his fifth straight win with the promotion, the man nicknamed “The Future” was hoping to make it a banner year.

In March, however, Fodor squared off with another of the promotion’s top surging fighters in Pat Healy. The resilient vet tapped out Fodor with a third round, arm-triangle-choke, and will challenge Melendez for the belt on September 29th.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Pat, because we knew exactly what he was going to try to do to me and he pulled it off and finished me. My hat’s off to Pat,” the 28 year-old Fodor told Full Contact Fighter recently. “I just think I lost that fight in my training camp and in the diet. I had such a big 155’er I tried to compete with him in the weight. I wanted to be just as big.”

Of course, prior to making his impressive run at lightweight, Healy competed for years as a welterweight.

“First, I almost didn’t make weight,” Fodor furthered, while relaying the issues he encountered as a result of trying to match Healy’s size and strength. “I ended up cutting 11 pounds the day of which I’ve never had to do in my life. It was horrible… I think I had done enough damage to my body just to make weight and then I got into the fight, and I honestly had about four minutes in me and then my muscles blew.”

“I’ve learned from that,” Fodor added. “I don’t care about size anymore. Most guys in my division are cutting like five pounds so I’m just going to try to do that and take a lot better care of my body.”

Although Fodor was forced to go all of summer without competing again, when Strikeforce finally informed him of when and who he would be fighting again, the lightweight concedes he was pleasantly surprised.

“I was so excited,” said Fodor, while discussing his reaction to the news that he will fight former champion Josh Thomson on September 29th. “I was expecting a lesser of a name, so I was really honored to get such a big name. This is exactly what I need to come off that loss from Healy. This will put me right back into title contention. I’m really looking forward to it.”

In Thomson, Fodor will fight a man who is coming off a tightly contested, split decision loss to Melendez in May.

“I know that title contention is a little scarce in Strikeforce right now, so I’m hoping to get right back in there,” Fodor added. “If beating Josh doesn’t hopefully put me there, then one fight after that…I’m really thankful. They could have given me guys from the Challengers series so I’m really grateful that they didn’t.”

Of course, Thomson’s (19-5) highly regarded abilities are evident by the fact that he’s fought Melendez to a decision three times. In addition, the 33 year-old-vet also holds recent wins over noted vets like K.J. Noons, Gesias Cavalcante and the aforementioned Healy.

“His experience; he’s had a lot more fights than me and he’s been in the third round. Wins a lot of fights by decision,” said Fodor, when asked what about Thomson concerns him the most. “He’s beaten some tough guys.”

“His submission game is pretty legit,” added Fodor. “I’ve watched his fights and he’s pretty slick off his back. He’s slick everywhere; his takedowns and his striking is decent. Obviously I’d feel fine on the feet with him, but I’m sure he’s going to try to put me on my back and submit me, so I’m training hard to be able to stop that.”

The September 29th bout will be hosted by the Power Balance Pavillion in Sacramento, California.