Bodog Fight veteran Carina Damm has been forced out of Strikeforce’s upcoming 135-pound tournament due to visa issues. The Brazilian fighter has not been able to secure a visa in order to fight in the U.S. despite submitting paperwork on time.

MMARising.com broke the news early on Wednesday. The website cited sources that claimed Strikeforce dropped the ball, but the promotion’s CEO Scott Coker indicated that this was not entirely true. According to the report there is a still a small chance Damm could compete if the visa issues are resolved.

Damm has not lost a fight since Rosi Sexton submitted her back in 2006. She is currently riding a 10-fight winning streak. She holds impressive victories over Vanessa Porto, Molly Helsel and Miku Matsumoto. In her last fight, she scored a TKO victory over Aline Serio in February.

According to reports, the other three fighters competing in the tournament are Miesha Tate, Maiju Kujata and Hitomi Akano. The four-woman tournament with be a part of Strikeforce Challengers 10. The card takes place on Aug. 13 at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, Ariz.

Currently headlining the card is a catchweight fight between UFC veteran Joe Riggs and Louis Taylor.

(Updated 7-29-10) ProMMAnow.com received the following report from Strikeforce regarding the Carina Damm situation:

As has been speculated on various websites, Brazilian Carina Damm is having difficulty obtaining the necessary visa to travel to The United States for her participation in the STRIKEFORCE Challengers event on Friday, Aug. 13 where Damm is slated to compete in the women’s welterweight (135 pounds) tournament in Phoenix, Ariz.

STRIKEFORCE is working diligently to help Carina secure a visa in time to make the trip for next month’s event. In the event that she is unable to acquire a visa, however, we have identified a qualified replacement for the tournament and will release her name if Carina is officially forced to withdraw from the event.  This prospective replacement has been in training camp for several weeks and is prepared to take on the task at hand.

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