The rumors are true: Zuffa has been forced to cancel its second event in just one month’s time. Strikeforce nixed their “Melendez vs. Healy” card when lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez was forced to withdraw from the card.
Strikeforce officials confirmed, the event, scheduled for Saturday in Sacramento, California, was cancelled late Sunday evening and MMA Junkie was the first to report the news.
In a press release, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker explained that the decision was made when Showtime announced it would not air the event if arguably the promotion’s biggest star, Melendez, would not be on the card.
"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 statement. "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.”
UFC 151 was cancelled early this month, Sept. 1, when Dan Henderson had to pull out of his scheduled light heavyweight title fight with champion Jon “Bones” Jones due to a knee injury.
Jones turned down a bout with last-minute replacement Chael Sonnen and the card was cancelled shortly afterwards. Jones had his fourth successful title defense at UFC 152, which took place on Saturday, when he submitted Vitor Belfort.
The main card of the Strikeforce card also included Josh Thompson vs. Carlos Fodor, Jorge Santiago squaring off against Quinn Mulhern and virtual unknowns Isaac Vallie-Flagg and Adriano Martins were set to go toe-to-toe.
Strikeforce now only has one card scheduled for the fall, a Nov. 3 card set to take place at the Chesapeake Energy Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Champion Daniel Cormier was set to headline the card against Frank Mir, but Mir withdrew last week due to an injury leaving “DC’s” status up in the air.
Is this one of the final nails in the coffin for a dying Strikeforce brand or is this simply another case of a freak injury ruining a card?