The question of whether or not Strikeforce could have saved the upcoming Melendez vs. Healy event is still being bantered across the net by fans and media, with the possibility of pitting Pat Healy against Josh Thomson for an interim title or promoting another fight into the main event.
In the end, a “weak undercard” was likely the cause for the shows cancellation according to Wrestling Observer editor Dave Meltzer.
Meltzer spoke to Mauro Ranallo on Tuesday during the live podcast of “The MMA Show with Mauro Ranallo” giving his reasons on why a second ZUFFA show ended up on the chopping block with mere weeks from the Sacramento, California event.
“(It got cancelled because) it had a really weak undercard. The deal is, and this isn’t just a Strikeforce thing, but when you had lesser shows, you had more depth on each individual show so you were able to make more saves to keep these shows together so you wouldn’t go, ‘Oh my God’ if you ran this show without the main event, it was worth it to keep it on PPV or on TV. I was surprised Showitme cancelled the show this late — everything’s set up, you have the TV time slot locked in, there were eight other fights- – and this card was stronger than the old Friday night (Strikeforce Challengers cards). But for a Saturday night card, it was pretty weak, so I’m not blaming Showtime considering the amount of money they were going to spend. We’ve seen countless times in boxing, if the main event gets scratched, the show gets cancelled.
“But you could have moved Josh Thomson to the main event and still televised the card. It wasn’t quite as attractive, but it was still a card. There were still ways of saving the card. On Strikeforce’s side, you could have ran the card. But you would have had to offer refunds, and I don’t know the arena advance, so really, both Showtime and Strikeforce made the call. Without the television money they figured it wasn’t worth running the show. And just like UFC 151, the fighters got screwed.”
Also appearing on the podcast Canadian UFC lightweight TJ Grant, Strikeforce lightweight Isaac Vallie-Flagg, and Demetrious Johnson trainer Matt Hume.