Lavar Johnson (17-5) is currently riding an intimidating 100 percent Knockout of the Night rate—receiving the honor and dollars of that award in each of his two fights in his young UFC career. The rising heavyweight prospect will try to make it three in a row against Stefan Struve (23-5) come UFC 146 this Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The more veteran Struve may not only be Johnson’s toughest opponent in the UFC, but of his whole MMA career itself, which boasts of 15 of 17 wins via knockout.
And Struve is not exactly intimidated by fearsome strikers, being a strong striker himself. Don’t let his “mere” six KO wins fool you; three of those were recorded in his last five UFC fights.
Also take note that the last one was over another powerful striker in Dave Herman.
But what could really pose problems for Johnson is Struve’s ground game, with the latter’s 15 wins coming by submission.
And this really is an area of concern for Johnson, who has lost by submission in four of his five losses.
We’ll see this Saturday which fighter will be able to do to the other what he did to their common opponent Pat Barry. Johnson scored a TKO via punches over Barry only last May 5; Struve submitted the same fighter on October of last year.
However, Struve is more versatile and can also hurt and finish opponents with strikes, making him a more dangerous puzzle for Johnson.
Struve claimed in a recent Bleacher Report Productions video interview that, “One of the most important aspects of my game is that I’m pretty quick on the ground. I don’t move like a heavyweight on the ground; I’m more of a middleweight on the ground.”
Not a few fight fans will attest that he’s just being honest.
Recently remeasured as actually having an 84.5-inch reach—tying Jon Jones in having the longest reach in UFC history—Struve looks to add another digit in his win column this weekend, by any means possible.
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