The California State Athletic Commission has dropped Joe “Diesel” Riggs from his fight with Luke Stewart after he disclosed to the commission that he had taken a prescribed narcotic pain killer three days earlier. MMA veteran Drew Fickett has been called up to replace him and fight Stewart on short notice at “Strikeforce Melendez vs. Thomson”, tonight from the HP Pavilion in San Jose, CA. Here’s a video of Ken Pavia, Riggs Agent explaining the situation.
According to a report on Sherdog, former UFC welterweight contender Joe Riggs will step in and replace Shonie Carter at Strikeforce “Melendez vs. Thomson” on June 27 from the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.
Carter injured his hand in training and was unsure if he would be able to meet the California State Athletic Commissions (CSAC) medical requirements.
Riggs is coming off a September loss to Cory Devela in which he suffered a back injury in the cage. Riggs has since had a second surgery to repair disks in his spine and will look to get back into the cage after a four month layoff.
Gilbert Melendez vs. Josh Thomson
Bobby Southworth vs. Anthony Ruiz
Elaina Maxwell vs. Meisha Tate
Luke Stewart vs. Joe Riggs
Nam Phan vs. Billy Evangelista
Bobby Stack vs. Jose Palacios
Jeremiah Metcalf vs. Raymond Daniels
Cyrillo Padhillo vs. Jesse Jones
Alexander Trivino vs. Genaro Strangis
Jesse Gillespie vs. Davis Martin
Josh Neal vs. Travis Johnson
Chris Cariaso vs. Anthony Figueroa
Eric Lawson vs. TBA
Alvin Cacdac vs. TBA
Quick weigh-in results for Strikeforce/EliteXC Shamrock vs. Le
All fighters eventually made weight, but Drew Fickett and Tiki Ghosen needed the allowable one hour to make weight.
The show broadcasts live tomorrow on Showtime starting at 10pm EST.
Frank Shamrock (185) vs. Cung Le (183)
Gilbert Melendez (154.5) vs. Gabe Lemley (153)
Ryan Jensen (186) vs. Joey Villasenor (185)
Drew Fickett (171) vs. Jae Suk Lim (170)
Luke Stewart (171) vs. Tiki Ghosn (171)
Marlon Sims (162.5) vs. Billy Evangelista (160.5)
Mike Kyle (225) vs. Wayne Cole (209)
Jesse Jones (173.5) vs. Jesse Gillespie (180)
Darren Uyenoyama (136) vs. Anthony Figueroa (133)
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