UFC
UFC 146: Mark Hunt injured, Lavar Johnson in against Stefan Struve on May 26 card
May 17, 2012 - 9:30:31 PM UFC 146: Mark Hunt injured, Lavar Johnson in against Stefan Struve on May 26 card

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Alistair Overeem's removal from next weekend's UFC 146 event in Las Vegas had a trickle effect down the card, with all but one fight on the all-heavyweight main card getting switched up.

That final originally scheduled fight for the main card was the bout between Mark Hunt and Stefan Struve, but now that fight has gotten a change as well.

According to a report from MMAFighting.com, Hunt has been forced out of the event with an undisclosed injury, and Struve will now take on Lavar Johnson on extremely short notice. The replacement bout will keep the main card filled with all heavyweight fights.

Johnson is stepping in after having just fought himself, as he earned a TKO victory over Pat Barry at UFC on Fox 3 earlier this month. This will mark two fights in three weeks for Johnson, one of the quickest turnarounds in modern UFC history.

Struve has won four of his last five fights in the Octagon, all by stoppage, and rides a two-fight winning streak into this event. That two fight streak saw him submit Barry last October, then take out Dave Herman by TKO in February.

UFC 146 is headlined by the Heavyweight Championship bout between Junior dos Santos and Frank Mir.

Penick's Analysis: It was only a month and a half ago that fans were rallying for Mark Hunt to be moved into the the title fight against dos Santos, and now he's another casualty to this card. This has to be one of the most changed main cards in the UFC's history, as every scheduled fight for the night is different than what it was originally set out to be. As for this new fight in and of itself, it should be a pretty exciting fight. Johnson hits like a truck, and while Struve's chin is questionable, he's got a much better submission game than Pat Barry does, and Barry nearly pulled off a sub on Johnson on the Fox card.