Late breaking news on Sunday night—Strikeforce PR sent out an email stating that Saturday’s event has been cancelled. Gilbert Melendez was scheduled to put his lightweight title on the line against Pat “Bam Bam” Healy in the main event.
Unfortunately, Melendez suffered an injury in training and was forced to pull out of the fight. Under the current terms of broadcast contract with Showtime, Showtime has the ability decide which events they will air on their network.
“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.
“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.”
This is another example of the issues that Zuffa currently faces in what can only be described as a “cursed” summer. With so many injuries to main-event level fighters, they have been forced to piece cards together like some sort of Frankenstein’s monster.
This is the second card that Zuffa has been forced to cancel in 2012 and the second time in company history that they have opted to not go forward with an event.
Quotes provided by Zuffa PR staff.
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