More bad news for Canada.
Ryan Ford reinjured his arm and had to pull out of the World Series of Fighting 21 main event against Yushin Okami, which was set for June 5 in Edmonton, WSOF executive vice president Ali Abdel Aziz confirmed with MMAFighting.com on Tuesday.
Abdel Aziz said WSOF is seeking a new main event and possibly also a new location. Ford is an Edmonton native and one of the main reasons the promotion was holding the card there.
Ford (22-5), the WSOF Canadian welterweight champion, is coming off a loss to Jake Shields in a welterweight title fight last October. Ford lost via first-round submission, but competed with a broken right arm. He injured the same arm again in training for this fight against Okami.
Okami (30-9), a former perennial UFC middleweight contender, was dropping down to welterweight for the Ford bout. In his last fight, the Japanese star fell to David Branch in a middleweight title contest back in November. Okami has won four of his last six fights, dating back to his time with the UFC. It’s unclear if he will remain on the WSOF 21 card.
WSOF 21 remains pretty deep. Smealinho Rama defends his heavyweight title against Blagoi Ivanov in the co-main event and Lance Palmer puts his featherweight belt on the line against Chris Horodecki as well.