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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
A reserve bout for the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament is set for the February 12 event in New Jersey, as Lavar Johnson and Shane Del Rosario will meet, according to multiple published reports.
Johnson and Del Rosario have both been featured on the Strikeforce Challengers series of cards, each of them coincidentally enough having their sole headlining bouts against Lolohea Mahe. Both fighters defeated Mahe by TKO.
Del Rosario has finished all ten of his career fights, with only one making it out of the first round. His Strikeforce career has seen him knock out the aforementioned Mahe after making his debut by submitting Brandon Cash by Omoplata.
Johnson's had a rockier road to this bout. After making his Strikeforce debut on the very first Challengers card, knocking out Carl Seumanutafa in 18 seconds, Johnson was the victim of a violent attack while at a family gathering in the summer of 2009. Suffering multiple gunshot wounds, it would be a year out of action for Johnson before he returned to take out Mahe in the second round of their bout in May of 2010. He followed that return win up with a victory over Virgil Zwicker in October.
The winner of this fight will be called upon as a replacement if an injury is suffered during the eight man heavyweight tournament that was announced on Tuesday.
Penick's Analysis: This is a good fight to determine a replacement. I actually wouldn't have minded seeing Del Rosario get the spot in the field that Sergei Kharitonov has taken, as Del Rosario is an exciting up and coming prospect that could have made a name for himself on that side of the bracket. He could still get that opportunity, especially if Strikeforce finds they have more difficulties than they can deal with in Josh Barnett's licensing. But if an injury happens, the winner of this fight is going to get a very big opportunity in the organization against some very tough talent.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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