Erin Toughill out of Strikeforce

Last night Strikeforce finally announced what some of us have known for a couple of weeks. Erin Toughill is not fighting for Strikeforce in the near future. And though Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker told MMA Rising that he's leaving the door open for a return, I seriously doubt she will be able to jump through enough hoops to get back into Strikeforce. So the problem started a few weeks ago when Coker announced that Erin would be on the August Houston show but no match was announced with the rest of the show. Then Coker claimed that there was some sort of mysterious scheduling issue. But it was soon revealed that the real problem was that Erin had told a Strikeforce staffer that she would not be able to cut to 145lb in time but that staffer didn't tell Coker. Meanwhile Erin approached proposed opponent Shana Olsen on her own and suggested the fight be done at a 150lb catchweight. That was the wrong thing to do. You don't go into business for yourself behind the boss's back. That had to annoy him. It made him look like he didn't know what was going on in his own company. He said he would still try to put a match together for the fall. But the writing was on the wall and now though Coker has not voided Erin's contract, he said she must have a 145lb match outside Strikeforce before she can return. Some fans have asked why Shana didn't accept the match at 150. For one thing, she is not obligated to accept anything. But the main reason is it's not her call and it's become obvious that even if she had accepted it, Scott Coker would not have approved of 150lb catchweight. So Erin's biggest mistake was trying to do an end run around Coker. If she was truthful with him, he would have been much more cooperative. I'm not going to speculate on Erin Toughill's future or the future of Strikeforce's 145lb division. This was embarassing and the division is in a shambles right now. I don't know what they will do.