Former Strikeforce lightweight champ Josh ‘The Punk’ Thomson (18-4, 1NC) has been forced to withdraw from an upcoming September 10 matchup against Maximo Blanco (8-2-1, 1NC) due to injury.
News first surfaced on the Underground Forums and was later confirmed by MMAFighting.com on Tuesday evening with sources close to the situation.
The specifics of the injury were not mentioned by the site but MMAjunkie.com is reporting that Thomson suffered a foot injury leaving out any specifics. They did note though, that Thomson has been forced out of events before due to toe injuries.
Thomson had been scheduled to meet Blanco, who was making his promotional debut, on the main card as part of the upcoming Sept. 10 Strikeforce World Grand Prix semi-finals event in Cincinnati at the U.S. Bank arena.
‘The Punk’ has suffered several injuries in the past and had his last fight this past December at the Dynamite!! 2010 event. Thomson suffered a unanimous decision loss to Tatsuya Kawajiri at the Japanese event, ending a two fight win streak.
This was to have been Blanco’s promotional, as well as North American, debut. The Venezuelan born, but Japan trained fighter is currently riding a six fight win streak.
No news yet from Strikeforce officials whether they will find a replacement or reschedule the match.