Roy Nelson (James Law/HeavyMMA)
New bout booked for all-heavyweight main card in Las Vegas
The UFC 146 heavyweight shuffle continues.
Gabriel Gonzaga is the latest heavyweight knocked off the main card of the pay-per-view. The Brazilian is out of his fight against Roy Nelson, and stepping in for him will be Dave Herman. The UFC announced the switch overnight.
UFC 146: Dos Santos vs. Mir takes place May 26 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The main card is a first in UFC history – five heavyweight bouts, including a main event heavyweight title fight between champion Junior dos Santos and former champ Frank Mir.
For those scoring at home, Herman will be Nelson’s third opponent in about 10 days. Nelson, the winner of Season 10 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” was originally scheduled to meet Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva on the card. But the shuffling that was created when Alistair Overeem was pulled from his title fight with dos Santos affected just about everyone on the main card. Silva was moved up to face Cain Velasquez when Mir was moved up to face dos Santos. So Gonzaga was moved in to fill the void, moving up from a fight against Shane Del Rosario – and now an injury has forced him out.
Herman (21-3, 1-1 UFC) will be looking to rebound after a February TKO loss to Stefan Struve at UFC on Fuel TV: Sanchez vs. Ellenberger. The Indiana native debuted with the UFC last June, and it was a successful one. His second-round TKO win over John-Olav Einemo was a Fight of the Night winner at UFC 131.
Herman started his career 15-0 with 15 stoppages – 14 coming in the first round. The 6-foot-5 big man had three wins for the now-defunct EliteXC under his belt before his first loss, which came in 2009 for Sengoku. Herman also has a pair of wins under the Bellator banner. His only other loss before falling to Struve was due to a disqualification for illegal knees.
Nelson (16-7, 3-3 UFC) has had a rough go of it since starting his UFC career 2-0, including a knockout win over Brendan Schaub to win TUF 10. After a second straight Knockout of the Night bonus for a 39-second stoppage of Struve in March 2010, Nelson has lost three of his last four fights.
At UFC 143 in February, Nelson lost a Fight of the Night unanimous decision to Fabricio Werdum that left him battered and bloodied – but unable to be finished. That erased the knockout win he had over Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic at UFC 137 last October that had him back in the win column after back-to-back losses to dos Santos and Mir.
Here’s a look at the new main card for UFC 146:
Junior dos Santos vs. Frank Mir (in for Alistair Overeem)
Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio Silva (in for Frank Mir)
Roy Nelson vs. Dave Herman (in for Gabriel Gonzaga, who was in for Antonio Silva)
Shane Del Rosario vs. Stipe Miocic (in for Gabriel Gonzaga)
Mark Hunt vs. Stefan Struve