Daniel Cormier (right) battling Josh Barnett (photo via Showtime)

By FCF Staff

For the third time this fall, ZUFFA has been forced to cancel an event due to the substantive impact of injuries, as today Strikeforce has announced that a scheduled November 3rd card in Oklahoma City will not take place.

The news confirms recent rumors that the event would in fact be nixed, due to the withdrawal of main card draws Frank Mir and Luke Rockhold due to injury.

Mir had been scheduled to fight recent heavyweight grand-prix Daniel Cormier, and the middleweight champ Rockhold was supposed to defend versus Lorenz Larkin. With less than four weeks to go before the event, no replacements had been named yet for Mir or Rockhold.

Strikeforce was also forced to cancel a September 29th card recently, after lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez could not compete due to injury, and Showtime elected to not broadcast the card.

There had been speculation recently, as to whether another card cancellation–the second in several weeks– might bring about an end to Showtime’s broadcasting partnership with Strikeforce. Both companies, however, are reporting today that a January 3rd card is in the works.

“Due to a series of injuries, we were forced to cancel the upcoming card on Nov. 3, but are already working to put together a stacked card in January,” STRIKEFORCE CEO Scott Coker said in a press release announcing the cancellation.

“While we’re disappointed with the cancellation, we are looking forward to an even bigger STRIKEFORCE event on SHOWTIME early next year,” said Stephen Espinoza, Executive Vice President & General Manager, SHOWTIME Sports®

In September, the Ultimate Fighting Championship decided to cancel its UFC 151 event, after headliner Dan Henderson was forced to withdraw and a replacement fight featuring Jon Jones couldn’t be signed.