Manx

Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos is out of his scheduled bout against Joey Villasenor at next week’s Strikeforce and EliteXC co-promoted event on March 29 at the HP Pavilions in San Jose, Calif.

“He has been having visa problems in Brazil,” Strikeforce vice president Mike Afromowitz told MMAWeekly. “The delay in his arrival would jeopardize him getting licensed in time for the fight.”

Afromowitz was unsure why there were delays in the issuance of Santos’ visa, but the promotion had to make the determination to move forward with another opponent and not risk losing the bout altogether.

“There are a few guys that we are considering,” said Afromowitz, “but we’re still looking to finalize a replacement.” He was hopeful that an announcement would be forthcoming soon.

The Villasenor vs. Santos bout was scheduled to be part of the event’s five-fight telecast on Showtime. The main event features Frank Shamrock defending his Strikeforce middleweight championship against contender Cung Le.

Other televised bouts include Gilbert Melendez defending his Strikeforce lightweight belt against Gabe Lemley, Jake Shields vs. Drew Fickett for the first EliteXC welterweight title, and Nick Diaz fighting Spirit MC champion Jae Suk Lim.

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This is very disappointing. Not only was it a very solid fight for an excellent card, but it had great potential to be the fight of the night...

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Extreme Bias For:
Heath Herring-Josh Barnett-Roxy Modafferi-Kazushi Sakurauba-Murrillo Bustamante-Tatsuya Kawajiri-Megumi Fujii-Dan Henderson-Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria-Kazuyuki Fujita-Hideki Kadowaki

PrideFan123

That sucks. Cyborg is a fun guy to watch.Reminds me of a mini-Wanderlei Silva.

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Uchi

Nahhh, mini would be like Dida. Cyborg is more of a mid-sized Wanderlei silva lol.

But yea, cyborg is fun to watch.

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"Omae wa mou shindeiru"
-You're already dead

bbjd7

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

My boy Cyborg was going to kill Joey this sucks. His wife had problems with her visa as well and had to pull out of her fight tonight on SHOXC so IDK whats going on they probably don't want a man as scary as Cyborg coming to the US.

Wise

Could you imagine having that cat walk up to you in customs? I would probably shit my pants. I bet he gets flagged all the time.

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bbjd7

I wouldn't want Cyborg to walk up to me anywhere. He is one of the scariest looking dudes on the planet. Man it blows he's not fighting though.

Dan Jitsu

SHIT!!!!!

I was with Joey today at his last training session before the fight. We went to lunch and had not yet heard the news. This kinda shit is sooooo stupid. How does this happen with the amount of time they had to get their shit together? Supposedly they're looking for an alternate.............

bbjd7

It can be tough to get a work visa to the USA. And since I believe Cyborg only got annouced as his opponent about 3 weeks ago so while I understand you train with Joey I'm sure Cyborg and Chute Boxe did their best to get his VISA.

Dan Jitsu

Yeah, I'm pissed at the red tape crap. I'm sure they consider Cyborg to be a celeb, you'd think they would help him out!

bbjd7

O don't worry I'm pissed as hell to. I mean Cyborg vs Joey was going to be a crazy brawl. I was expecting a Cyborg vs Melvin type fight. I thought Cyborg would KO him and I'm sure you were picking Joey but I think we can both agree that fight was going to be crazy and it's been ruined by as you said the red tape crap.

It probably has something to do with his family since his Wife was unable to get a Visa for her fight tonight so it got removed from the main card for a pretty fun fight going on right now.