Strikeforce announced yesterday that Saturday night’s fight card in Sacramento had been canceled after Gilbert Melendez pulled out of the fight with an injury.
The Strikeforce lightweight champion appeared on “Inside MMA” on AXS TV last night and stated that he suffered a separated shoulder during a recent training session.
“I was locking horns with Jake (Shields), trying to defend a takedown and he was trying to get on,” Melendez said. “On the way down, I landed on my shoulder and I separated my shoulder.”
The injury took place last Tuesday and he immediately let Strikeforce officials know about the injury. He wanted to take a couple of days to see if the injury got better, but that did not happen.
On Friday, Melendez called Strikeforce to tell him that he would be pulling out of the fight. At that time, Strikeforce informed their television partner Showtime that Melendez was off the card.
Upon hearing that Melendez was off the card, Showtime Sports decided they would not show the card due to the lack of a headliner and released a statement about the situation.
“On Friday night, Strikeforce informed us that lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez had sustained an injury and would not be able to compete in their Saturday, Sept. 29 card,” the statement said. “Without our headline fighter and main event or a marquee undercard, we reluctantly informed Strikeforce that we could not continue with plans for the telecast.”
After Showtime decided they would not televise the card, Strikeforce elected to cancel the card instead of having the bard broadcasted on another television outlet. This is the second time in the last month that Zuffa has canceled a card and it’s not known if Strikeforce will add another fight card to 2012 because of this cancellation.
The next Strikeforce card is set for November 3rd in Oklahoma City, with Daniel Cormier headlining against an opponent to be determined since Frank Mir recently pulled out of the fight with an injury.