Good grief, it appears that the UFC injury bug has now carried over to Strikeforce as Frank Mir has pulled out of his eagerly anticipated crossover fight with Daniel Cormier in November due to an undisclosed ailment.
There had been a lot of interest in this fight due to it marking the first time that a UFC fighter would have crossed the barrier to fight for Strikeforce while still under contract with the promotion.
The fact that it was a former champion like Mir who had just fought the current UFC title holder Junior Dos Santos, and that he was going to face the recent Strikeforce heavyweight tournament champ only made the event more special and it could have lead to some of the best ratings we’ve ever seen on the Showtime channel for an MMA event.
However, apparently it just wasn’t meant to be and at this stage it’s not clear how Zuffa intend to proceed from here.
There’s certainly still enough time for them to line up an opponent, but will it still be someone from the UFC roster, or given their own injury problems at the moment will Strikeforce be forced to look further afield for a suitable stand-in.
Given that, win or lose, Cormier will be shipped into the UFC’s roster after this fight I think it makes sense to still give him a current UFC fighter. That way if he loses then it helps boosts the other fighter’s stature, while if Cormier wins it immediately helps set him up as a major player in the division.
