RE-INJURED HAND FORCES ALISTAIR OVEREEM OUT OF SCHEDULED TITLE DEFENSE AGAINST FABRICIO WERDUM ON AUG. 15

Source - Strikeforce:

NEW YORK (July 22, 2009)–- STRIKEFORCE Heavyweight Champion Alistair “The Demolition Man” Overeem has re-injured a hand and will not be able to defend his title against Fabricio “Vai Cavalo” Werdum at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California on Saturday, Aug. 15.

The other three STRIKEFORCE world championship fights remain intact: Gina Carano will collide with Cris Cyborg in the main event and the first STRIKEFORCE women’s 145-pound championship fight in history.

Nick Diaz and Joe “Diesel” Riggs will revisit their bitter rivalry in the first-ever STRIKEFORCE welterweight (170 pounds) championship matchup and Josh “The Punk” Thomson will risk his lightweight (155 pounds) belt against former champion Gilbert “El Nino” Melendez.

A replacement bout for the scratched heavyweight fight will be announced soon.

Tickets for STRIKEFORCE: “Carano vs. Cyborg,” priced from $30, are on sale at the HP Pavilion box office (408-287-7070) as well as at all Ticketmaster locations (800-745-3000), Ticketmaster online (www.ticketmaster.com), and the official STRIKEFORCE website (www.STRIKEFORCE.com).

HP Pavilion doors will open for the event at 5 p.m. The first preliminary bout will begin at 5:30 p.m.

The live SHOWTIME telecast of STRIKEFORCE: “Carano vs. Cyborg” will begin at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT (tape delayed on the west coast).

After co-promoting two events live on SHOWTIME in 2007 and 2008, STRIKEFORCE in March 2009 signed a multi-year agreement to stage live MMA events on the premium cable television network.

About STRIKEFORCE

STRIKEFORCE is a world-class mixed martial arts cage fight promotion which, on Friday, March 10, 2006, made history with its “Shamrock vs. Gracie” event, the first sanctioned mixed martial arts fight card in California state history. The star-studded extravaganza, which pitted legendary champion Frank Shamrock against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Cesar Gracie at San Jose’s HP Pavilion, played host to a sold-out, record crowd of 18,265. Since 1995, STRIKEFORCE has been the exclusive provider of martial arts programming for ESPN and, after 12 years of success as a leading, world championship kickboxing promotion, the company unveiled its mixed martial arts series with “Shamrock vs. Gracie.” In May 2008, West Coast Productions, the parent company of STRIKEFORCE, partnered with Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment (SVS&E), an entity created in 2000 to oversee all business operation aspects of the San Jose Sharks and HP Pavilion at San Jose.

Note from Ric: Not that anyone cares, but I've already gone to MMA Blitz and presented my take.