Loretta Hunt at TheFightNetwork.com is reporting that Joe Riggs has left World Extreme Cagefighting and signed a contract with Strikeforce. Riggs will reportedly make his Strikeforce debut on September 29 in Los Angeles where he will fight current Stikeforce champion Eugene “The Wolf” Jackson for the Strikeforce Middleweight Championship belt. Both Jackson and Riggs are UFC veterans.
According to Hunt,
The seven-time UFC veteran says he recently asked promoters Zuffa LLC. to release him from a four-fight co-promotional contract with its sister organization World Extreme Cagefighting to pursue more lucrative offers that would entail less fights.
Hoping to return to the WEC following a tune-up victory over Dan Chambers at Canada’s Hardcore Championship Fighting in July, Riggs claims a previous offer to fight Jason “Mayhem” Miller has been pulled from the table.
It proved to be one of the final straws, according to the Arizona fighter. Earlier that year, Riggs says the WEC had unceremoniously stripped him of his middleweight title with little reason other than the promotion had too many title bouts scheduled for a card Riggs ended dropping off from.
Riggs has had a tough past few years suffering the loss of his child, back-to-back surgeries and overcoming and addiction to painkillers. All “Diesel” is looking for is some respect for his collective body of work in MMA:
I feel like I’m the Rodney Dangerfield of this sport, says Riggs. I’ve beat Kendall Grove, Nick Diaz, and Chris Lytle, but all people can remember is me getting knocked out by Diego Sanchez.
Tags: MMA, WEC, Strikeforce, Joe Riggs
