Once again Luke Stewart's opponent has been changed for his welterweight fight taking place tomorrow night on the Strikeforce: "Melendez vs Thomson" at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.
This latest news comes on the eve of the event and it is the second time in less than two weeks that his opponent has been switched.
Stewart was originally set to mix it up with Shonie Carter, but after "Mr. International" shattered his knuckle in training, Strikeforce announced Joe "Diesel" Riggs as the replacement. There were some questions about Riggs' health after his last fight in ended prematurely because he re-aggravated a prior back injury.
Today, the California State Athletic Commision (CSAC) decided it wasn't going to allow Riggs to compete tomorrow night. According to Riggs' agent, Ken Pavia via MMARated.com, however, the back injury was not the reason for this decision. Rather, it was because Riggs took a prescribed percocet three days ago.
Instead of taking the chance of it just not showing up on the drug test, Riggs decided to come clean and inform the CSAC.
So with little time to find a replacement, Strikeforce pulled a rabbit out of its hat named Drew Fickett, who will be step in on super short notice.
This is a mind-boggling replacement.
Fickett was supposed to fight Jake Shields on June 14 in Hawaii for the Elite XC welterweight title, but informed the company he injured his knee and could not go through with the fight. Elite XC later learned that Fickett had accepted two other fights right around the same time he was supposed to fight Shields instead.
Needless to say, Elite XC was not happy with Fickett deceiving them, and he was believed to be dropped from its roster. This is just another episode in the soap opera that is Drew Fickett these days.
Nonetheless, he will, in fact, fight Luke Stewart tomorrow night at Strikeforce: "Melendez vs. Thomson" at a catchweight of 185 pounds.
Stylistically, a bout between Fickett and Stewart looks to be a very entertaining jiu-jitsu match. It's just a shame for Stewart that he once again will have to adjust his gameplan for this fight.
He's coming off his first loss as a professional mixed martial artist, and this is just more adversity being thrown his way in what has proven to be a bizarre chain of events.
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