Strikeforce announced today on its web site that the November 3rd show in Oklahoma City at the Chesapeake Energy Arena has been canceled. The card had suffered injuries in both the main event and co-main event. This will be the second event in a row to be cancelled due to injuries. The September 29th show in Sacramento, CA was called off after Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez was injured.
Frank Mir was scheduled to fight under the Strikeforce banner for this one time against the Heavyweight Grand Prix winner Daniel Cormier. This was also going to be the last heavyweight fight, for the time being, in Strikeforce as the division had been disbanded. Mir had reportedly suffered a knee injury back in September.
Dana White revealed that Matt Mitrione had turned down the fight as a replacement for Mir. The MMA corner reported back on the 7th of this month that Middleweight Champion and co-main event participant Luke Rockhold suffered a wrist injury and had to pull out of his title fight with Lorenz Larkin.
Refunds will be available at the location were you purchased them from. The Strikeforce website provided a quote from both the Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker and a Showtime Sports executive on the cancellation.
“Due to a series of injuries, we were forced to cancel the upcoming card on Nov. 3, but are already working to put together a stacked card in January,” STRIKEFORCE CEO Scott Coker said.
“While we’re disappointed with the cancellation, we are looking forward to an even bigger STRIKEFORCE event on SHOWTIME early next year,” said Stephen Espinoza, Executive Vice President & General Manager, SHOWTIME Sports.
