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Strikeforce Card Cancelled Due to Melendez Injury

Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez pulls out due to injury which results in the whole card being cancelled, putting several Florida fighters in a bind.

By T.P. Grant
Presswire

For the second time this month a Zuffa card has been cancelled due to an injury in the main event. Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez was forced to withdraw from his bout with Pat Healy due to an undisclosed injury and Showtime made the call that the card was not worth airing without the champion.

This is a blow to all the fighters on the card. Due to the rarity of Strikeforce cards and their relative low profile since the Zuffa takeover of the promotion, fighters have complained that it is difficult to make ends meet fighting for Strikeforce and having a whole card cancelled with compound those problems.

Several Florida-based fighters were on this card and will be left looking for new fights. Jorge Santiago, training out of the Blackzilians camp, Florida-native and prospect Yuri Villefort, and Carlos Augusto, a Brazilian training the Jaco Hybrid Fighting Center. It is unclear right now if these fighters will be allowed to fight ouside of the promotion or will be forced to wait for another Strikeforce card.

For More on Strikeforce Cancellation

Gil Tweets About Injury | Healy Reacts


Photographs by cstreet.us, thelastminute, turtlemom nancy , fesek, kthypryn, justinwright, sue_elias, pointnshoot, and scrapstothefuture used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.