September, 2012 will be remembered as arguably the most cursed month in MMA history, with Strikeforce: Melendez Vs Healy this coming weekend now joining UFC 151 in the trash can.
Due to an injury to this Saturday’s headliner, Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez, the promotion have been left with no choice but to scrap the event entirely.
According to Strikeforce CEO it wasn’t exactly their decision though – instead it was Showtime that effectively pulled the plug.
“When Showtime informed us that it would not be airing the event, we made the difficult decision to cancel Saturday’s card in Sacramento,” Coker said in a press release. “Without a television partner, we simply could not move forward with this event. We wish Gilbert a speedy recovery and will work diligently and quickly to reschedule the fighters affected by this news on upcoming cards.”
While the UFC have suffered the brunt of the injury curse that’s afflicted MMA recently, Strikeforce are now starting to feel the effects of it too, with today’s news following on from the disappointing news last week that Frank Mir had pulled out of his November headliner with Daniel Cormier.
The good news for MMA fans is that there will still be an event worth watching this coming Saturday, with ‘UFC On Fuel TV 5’ airing live from the UK in the afternoon.
On reflection, Strikeforce: Melendez Vs Healy wasn’t one of the promotion’s strongest offerings. Like UFC 151 the main card looked pretty flimsy once the headliner was taken out of the picture, and that’s a big reason why it’s now been scrapped.
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Main Card:
Gilbert Melendez vs. Pat Healy
Guto Inocente vs. Gian Villante
Adriano Martins vs. Isaac Vallie-Flagg
Caros Fodor vs. Josh Thomson
Quinn Mulhern vs. Jorge Santiago
Prelims:
Mike Kyle vs. Dion Staring
Jorge Gurgel vs. Mizuto Hirota
Cat Zingano vs. Amanda Nunes
Yuri Villefort vs. Nah-Shon Burrell
Mike Bravo vs. Estevan Payan
