Scratch Marks: Strikeforce Pays Miller/Davis Win Purses

In an effort to streamline their CBS telecast Saturday, Strikeforce elected to scratch an undercard bout between Mark Miller and Deray Davis. While it may have helped avoid schedule complications with the network, it didn’t do them any favors with MMA media, who pushed them into a bed of thorns for depriving both men a chance to snag a winner’s purse. (And rightly so.)

Tuesday evening, Strikeforce’s Mike Afromowitz confirmed with Sherdog.com and other outlets that both Miller and Davis would receive both their show and win money. “Originally, we attempted to place this matchup on another fight card being promoted by a local promoter in Chicago in a couple of weeks,” Afromowitz said via email. “If both fighters had accepted, we would have paid each his fight purse a second time. Since neither was available due to different circumstances, however, we paid each his win bonus on top of the purse.”

While this doesn’t completely negate the mistake -- both men still wasted training camps, among other hassles -- it’s a nice concession. But unless CBS’ production truck had a sun dial, I’m not sure why it had to happen in the first place.