The UFC 146 fight card has been shaken up by injury once again, as Mark Hunt has been forced to withdraw from his planned bout with Stefan Struve due to a knee injury. Lavar Johnson will take Hunt's place in the battle with Struve, just three weeks after knocking out Pat "HD" Barry at the UFC on Fox: Diaz vs. Miller fight card at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J.
Both fighters are on two-fight win streaks that include wins over Barry. Struve submitted Barry with a triangle choke in at UFC Live: Cruz vs. Johnson in October before going on to beat Dave Herman in February, while Johnson's win over Barry at the Meadowlands was preceded by a vicious knockout of Joey Beltran in January.
The UFC 146 card, which features five heavyweight bouts on the main card, has seen several changes since it was first announced with a main event of Alistair Overeem challenging Junior dos Santos for the UFC Heavyweight Championship. That fight was scratched when Overeem failed a pre-fight drug test, and replaced with a dos Santos title defense against former champion Frank Mir, with Mir's original opponent, former champ Cain Velasquez, taking on Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva. Silva's original opponent, former IFL heavyweight champ and Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights winner Roy "Big Country" Nelson, was then scheduled to face Gabriel Gonzaga, but that fight was scrapped when Gonzaga went down with a back injnury. Nelson will face Dave "Pee Wee" Herman next Saturday night.
Hunt had been one of the most talked about fighters on the card after Overeem was ruled out of the main event. A decorated kickboxer whose MMA record stood at an unimpressive 5-6 when the UFC acquired his contract in the purchase of Strikeforce, Hunt chose to continue fighting even when offered a buyout by UFC management. After losing via armbar to Sean McCorkle at UFC 119, Hunt battled back to knockout Chris Tuchscherer, gut out a decision over Ben Rothwell and score his biggest UFC win yet when he TKOed Cheick Kongo at UFC 144 back in February.
With Hunt looking more like a veteran who holds wins over the likes of Wanderlei Silva and Mirko Cro Cop, Hunt benefitted from a groundswell of grassroots support when dos Santos was suddenly left without a challenger. The "Rally for Hunt" gained momentum and recognition throughout the MMA community before UFC president Dana White shut down the talk and inserted Mir against dos Santos.
Now, with Hunt out, fans are left with an intriguing matchup between Struve and Johnson. The 24-year-old "Skyscraper" - who recently told continues to improve and fill out his 6-foot-11 frame, and has shown the ability to win both in the striking game and with his jiu-jitsu. However, if there's one thing that Struve has shown, it's that he is susceptible to being knocked out, as all three of his UFC losses - against dos Santos, Nelson and Travis Browne - all came via knockout. Johnson, who has 15 wins by knockout (including his KO of the all-but-indestructible Beltran). Struve's best path to success is likely through the ground game, which means it could be a race for the Dutchman to get the fight to the ground before "Big" Lavar Johnson turns his lights out.
