Report: Luke Rockhold forced out of Strikeforce title defense with injury | Strikeforce News

By: Chris Taylor

It has been reported that Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold (10-1 MMA, 9-0 SF) has suffered a wrist injury and has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled title defense next month.

The injury is the latest blow to Strikeforce’s November 3rd card in Oklahoma City, which has now lost both it’s main and co-main events. Rockhold was scheduled to defend his middleweight title against Lorenz Larkin (13-0 MMA, 4-0 SF) in the evenings co-main event.

The main event that was originally slated for the November 3rd card was set to feature a heavyweight bout between Daniel Cormier and UFC heavyweight Frank Mir, but Mir was forced to pull out with an injury. UFC President Dana White recently revealed that the organization had attempted to have Matt Mitrione cross over and fight Cormier, but Mitrione turned down the opportunity to fight the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix champion.

All of this comes on the heels of the promotion being forced to cancel its September 29th show in Sacramento, California, when Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez pulled out of his headlining fight against Pat Healy with an injury. It was then that Showtime executives decided to not air the event, as it was without a top-billed fighter.

Strikeforce’s November 3rd card is scheduled to take place at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City. Currently there are no reports that the event is in jeopardy of being cancelled. However, officials will have to scramble to find replacement fights if they plan on saving the Strikeforce promotion from back to back event cancellations.