Lavar 'Big' Johnson – Photo by Esther Lin for Strikeforce
Officials with the Ultimate Fighting Championship announced yet another injury to one of their fighters as heavyweight Lavar ‘Big’ Johnson (17-6) has been forced out of his upcoming UFC on FOX 5 bout with Brendan ‘The Hybrid’ Schaub (8-3) due to a groin injury.
The announcement was made Thursday night at UFC.com.
Heavyweight KO artist Lavar Johnson has been forced to withdraw from his December 8th bout with Brendan Schaub due to a pulled groin. Given the proximity of the Seattle date, no replacement bout will be inserted in the lineup, which will go on with 12 fights.
UFC on Fox: Henderson vs. Diaz is scheduled to take place on December 8, 2012 at KeyArena in Seattle, Washington. The event is headlined by a lightweight title bout between defending champ Benson Henderson vs. Nate Diaz.
The Johnson vs. Schaub bout was to headline the Preliminary Card on FX.
Johnson suffered a submission loss in his last fight back in May at UFC 146, losing by armbar to Stefan Struve. ‘Big’ also suffered some damage to his arm and was sidelined for the summer to recover. Previous to that he had won two straight in the UFC beating Joey Beltran, via KO, and Pat Barry, by TKO.
Schaub is looking for a win having lost his last two fights by knockout. He was stopped by Ben Rothwell last April at UFC 145 and by Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 134 in Brazil. The losses ended a four fight win streak for the former TUF 10 finalist.