Just hours after Strikeforce confirmed the complete nine-bout lineup for their “HW GP Semifinals” event on September 10th, multiple outlets have confirmed Josh Thomson will be forced out his lightweight contest against Maximo Blanco.
The former Strikeforce champion has touched on his foot injury on his Twitter account over the last several days.
“crazy caught me with a vicious elbow check to my foot. Gettin xray now. Sigh!” he posted. “I’m officially done training for fights. Just gonna start fighting with training. Lol.”
Thomson holds a respectable 18-4 (1 NC) record, but hasn’t been seen since dropping a unanimous decision loss to Tatsuya Kawajiri at Dream “Dynamite!! 2010.”
No word if Strikeforce will look to find a substitute for Thomson. He and Blanco were slated to appear in the Showtime portion of the festivities.
Here is the card’s revised roster:
Preliminary Bouts:
(HDNet 8PM ET/5PM PT)
Amanda Nunes vs. Alexis Davis
Jordan Mein vs. Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos
Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante vs. Yoel Romero
Mike Kyle vs. Marcos Rogerio de Lima
Main Bouts:
(Showtime 10:30PM ET/PT)
Maximo Blanco vs. TBD
Roger Gracie vs. Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal
Luke Rockhold vs. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (Strikeforce Middleweight Champion)
Heavyweight Grand Prix Semifinals:
Daniel Cormier vs. Antonio Silva
Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov