Thomson May Be Forced To Withdraw From Title Defense (Updated)
Strikeforce’s August 15 event, “Carano vs. Cyborg” has already seen its fair share of line up changes, with fighters withdrawing from bouts, and other fights being added to the card. Unfortunately that may not yet be over with, as Josh Thomson may be forced to withdraw from his scheduled lightweight title defense against Gilbert Melendez. The potential withdrawal was discussed when Thomson appeared on MMAJunkie’s radio program.
“I broke it right at the ankle, so I had to have some plates put in with some screws,” Thomson said. “It was a double break in the fibia. I had a break in the lower part of the bone and a break in the upper part of the bone. I got eight screws and a plate put in.
“It was kind of a nasty break. The good thing is it wasn’t a jagged break. There was no compound fracture.”
Now nearly four months later, Thomson admitted he’s not yet 100 percent.
“I guess you could say that two weeks ago I was on crutches,” Thomson said.
Thomson admitted he was considering his options, one of which included withdrawing from the contest.
“I’m still talking right now with my cornermen and my management about moving the fight back to October or me just not fighting [Melendez],” Thomson said. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not taking this fight serious. I’m doing what I can to win this fight. That’s the bottom line.”
Thomson also admitted he hasn’t been able to follow his usual training routine while his leg continues to heal.
“It’s moving right along, I guess you could say,” Thomson said. “I’ve decided to go with the non-training method for this fight – kind of play it by ear and see what happens. There’s a lot of things I couldn’t do. I’m not training like I was able to for the first fight, and we’re going to see what happens.”
Thomson gained the Strikeforce lightweight belt by defeating Melendez via unanimous decision in June of 2008. He has yet to defend the belt, however. Thomson’s last fight was against Ashe Bowman in a non-title fight at “Stikeforce: At The Mansion II”, which he won via first round TKO. He was then slated to make his first title defense against Melendez earlier this year, but was forced to withdraw when he first sustained the injury that is jeopardizing the currently scheduled match up.
It is not yet clear if Thomson has made his struggles known to Strikeforce, or if they are seeking possible a replacement opponent for Melendez at this time. Stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com to follow this story as it develops.
Update 11:28 AM July 28, 1009: Thomson later went on the popular MMA forum, The UnderGround and changed his story on the possibility of withdrawing from the bout.
Dude, Im fighting unless something happens to my big toe again. LOL If ya got anything from my dam radio interview is was that im gonna nut up an fight this fight cuz I dont know a fighter who hasnt fought without an injury. I wasnt a 100% the 1st time an I wont be this time but sometimes you just have to have a lil faith in God an myself to pull me through. Enough said, Im fighting an thats the end of this post!
Pictured: Josh Thomson
Tags: gilbert melendez, Josh Thomson
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Strip him then. that is why every other promotion is inferior to the UFC, Their champions never defend their titles
Strip him due to injury?
strip him due to lack of title defense’s
dude a year between title defenses is unacceptable
I get that but, his lack of title defenses is due to injuries….
hey it sucks but it is what it is I guess
Well, injuries and Strikeforce taking a break from putting on events for about 5 months.
This sucks! I’m getting so sick of title bouts being announced and then cancelle. I mean, I understand guys get injured, but, Jesus, enough is enough. Or this sport to thrive there needs to be like a 6 month time limit for defending titles, no more interim titles. If you can’t defend, strip them, and when they’re ready to fight, give them a shot. Its probably not the best solution, but something has to change. Look st Matt serra, has a year long reign and doesn’t defend the title. What bs.
Damn, I was really looking forward to this fight. Their first fight was fantastic! There have been so many changes to cards/ orgs in the past week that my effing head is spinning. At least Carano/ Cyborg fight is still on, I’m actually surprised about how much publicity a women’s MMA match has garnered, esp when a little over a year ago it was taken as serious as the WNBA.
Werdum v OvereemRoger Gracie v TBARiggs v DiazThomson v Melendez?
Yet we do get Mousasi v Babalu
True, but I was stoked for the Riggs/ Diaz rematch. Either way, the card is still pretty good, now I just got to find someone with Showtime.
“Enough of this ****!!!!! Dude, Im fighting unless something happens to my big toe again. LOL If ya got anything from my dam radio interview is was that im gonna nut up an fight this fight cuz I dont know a fighter who hasnt fought without an injury. I wasnt a 100% the 1st time an I wont be this time but sometimes you just have to have a lil faith in God an myself to pull me through. Enough said, Im fighting an thats the end of this post!”
Josh “thepunk” Thomson
I found this on that interwebbie thing…. I’m not sure how true it is, but lets hope
Keeping my fingers crossed.
FR,
That came out after I wrote up the post. I will update the post to include that.
Its all good my man no worries,, gotta go make money and drive all over Cali for the day, have a wonderful day gents!
What next? Cyborg fails to make weight and that’s a non-title fight as well.
That isn’t outside the realm of possibility
This is just the nature of the business, and one of the primary differences between team sports and solo sports.
I think I would prefer fights to be rescheduled when both fighters are at 100%, then have a fight go off, like Mir and BigNog did, and then hear all the backstory about how Mir won because BigNog wasn’t at 100% afterwards.
Also, if anyone over at Strikeforce desrves to get their belts stripped off, it’s Cung Le…