Injury knocks out another Zuffa event
By BOB EMANUEL JR. | Scripps Howard News Service
For the second time in as many months, Zuffa LLC — the parent company of both the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Strikeforce — was forced to cancel an event due to an injury by a main event performer.
Last month, UFC 151 was scrapped when former PRIDE champion Dan Henderson injured his knee. His scheduled opponent, Jon Jones, refused to fight Chael Sonnen, who volunteered for the bout to save the card. Jones’ title defense was moved to UFC 152, where he defeated Vitor Belfort last Saturday.
A day after Jones’ victory, Strikeforce announced the cancellation of its upcoming event this Saturday after lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez sustained an undisclosed injury during training and was forced out of his title defense against Pat Healy at the Power Balance Pavilion in Sacramento, Calif.
According to Strikeforce’s press release, Showtime refused to air the event without the drawing power of Melendez.
“When Showtime informed us that it would not be airing the event, we made the difficult decision to cancel Saturday’s card in Sacramento,” Strikeforce CEO Scott 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.”
Strikeforce’s next planned card, Nov. 3 in Oklahoma City, already experienced the loss of its projected main event. Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir was injured, and a new opponent will soon be announced to replace Mir against Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix winner Daniel Cormier.
BELLATOR’S BACK
Bellator Fighting Championships’ seventh season opens Friday night with Bellator 74, which features the welterweight quarterfinals. The event, which will be held at Caesars Atlantic City Hotel & Casino, can be seen on MTV2 on delay at 5 p.m. HST.
Lyman Good, who won Bellator’s inaugural welterweight tournament and was crowned the promotion’s first champion, returns for another bid at the title. Good, who lost the championship to Ben Askren at Bellator 33 in 2010, was defeated in the second round of Bellator’s fourth-season tournament.
Good will fight Jim Wallhead in the quarterfinals. The remaining quarterfinals match Michail Tsarev and Tim Welch, Jordan Smith and Andrey Koreshkov, and Nordine Taleb and Marius Zaromskis.
QUICK JABS
Undefeated heavyweight Stipe Miocic puts his 9-0 record on the line against Stefan Struve in the main event of UFC on FUEL TV 5. The event, which will be held at the Capital FM Arena in Nottingham, England, can be seen live at 10 a.m. HST. The remainder of the televised card includes: welterweights Dan Hardy vs. Amir Sadollah; bantamweights Brad Pickett vs. Yves Jabouin; lightweights Paul Sass vs. Matt Wiman; welterweights John Hathaway vs. John Maguire; and welterweights Che Mills vs. Duane Ludwig … Demetrious Johnson defeated Joseph Benavidez at UFC 152 to become the UFC’s first flyweight champion. Light heavyweight champion Jon Jones retained his title with a fourth-round submission of Vitor Belfort.
