A major welterweight title fight between Rousimar Palhares and Jon Fitch at World Series Of Fighting 11 in July has today been canceled.
Palhares, who won the title with a first round submission finish against Steve Carl at WSOF 9 last month, is believed to have been responsible for the cancelation after pulled out of the fight due to personal reasons.
This has apparently angered WSOF exec Ali Abdel-Aziz as he’s vented his frustration in an interview with MMAfighting.com and indicated that from now he’s going to be looking out for the promotion’s interests first rather than the fighters.
“We’re getting screwed,” Abdel-Aziz said. “I’m trying to put on a fight card and be nice to fighters, and now they dont want to fight each other.
“I have to put WSOF first and everyone else second. No more Mr. Nice Guy.”
There’s been significant amount of unrest in the WSOF of late with Gerald Harris announcing his retirement after apparently becoming disheartened with how he was being treated, while Josh Burkman has also been trying to break free of his contract with the company, and Andrei Arlovski was last week given permission to leave to join the UFC.
The promotion are now working to rework the WSOF 11 fight card, with a lightweight title fight between Justin Gaethje and Nick Newell now set to take on headline duties, while Abdel-Aziz is also hoping that a fight between Fitch and Jake Shields can be arranged to serve as the evening’s co-main event.
