CagePotato Conspiracy Theory: Rockhold isn’t hurt, but he already sold the belt on eBay while people were still willing to bid on his treasure.
There’s no need for a wordy introduction here: Strikeforce has officially become so incompetent that it can’t even die correctly.
After canceling two consecutive events, Strikeforce planned to have an absolutely stacked grand finale on January 12, 2013 featuring three title fights and Heavyweight Grand Prix champion Daniel Cormier. Much like everything else that Strikeforce has planned since being purchased by Zuffa, things quickly went wrong. First, lightweight kingpin Gilbert Melendez got injured/realized he was in a no-win scenario fighting for Strikeforce again and pulled out of the event. Now, middleweight champion Luke Rockhold is also off of the card, citing a wrist injury as the reason for his departure. According to The MMA Corner:
The MMA Corner has learned from sources close to the camp of Rockhold that the middleweight champion has suffered a wrist injury and has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled Jan. 12 title defense against Lorenz Larkin.
Rockhold and Larkin were previously slated to meet on Strikeforce’s Nov. 3 card, but Rockhold was forced out of that contest with an injury to the same wrist and the entire card was subsequently canceled.
For those of you keeping score, Strikeforce’s final card, Strikeforce: Champions, now features only one champion. That champion, welterweight champion Nate Marquardt, will be defending his title against Tarec Saffiedine, assuming Nate the Great doesn’t also pull out of this utterly pointless title defense. Also on the card, Heavyweight Grand Prix champion Daniel Cormier will beat up Dutch veteran Dion Staring and Mike Kyle will fight former champion Gegard Mousasi.
Anyone out there want to bet that this event ends up getting scrapped as well?