Remarkably, UFC 146’s all-heavyweight main card has suffered yet another blow less than two weeks out from fight night.
The latest call-off is veteran fighter Mark Hunt who’s picked up an injury that’ll prevent him from facing Stefan Struve at the Las Vegas show.
Thankfully, the UFC have found a suitable replacement at short notice with former Strikeforce heavyweight Lavar Johnson now being slotted in to face the Dutchman.
The change means that every single fight on the main card has been altered in some way compared to the line-up that was originally announced just a few short months ago.
In some ways this a like-for-like replacement for Struve as Johnson, who’s 2-0 in the UFC so far, has a similar heavy-handed, striking orientated game, though Johnson is six inches taller than Hunt at 6ft 4″.
That won’t be a major issue for Struve however given that he’ll still tower above his opponent, standing 6ft 11″. However, reach will be a much more significant factor, with Johnson giving up only 3 inches while Hunt would have come up short by a full 10 inches.
Nevertheless, like Hunt, Johnson has a weakness to submissions and that just happens to be Struve’s speciality so it’d be in his best interests to get this fight to the floor in this bout, especially since his chin isn’t the best.
