As if there hasn’t been enough heavyweight switcheroos going on at UFC 146. On Tuesday night, it was announced Roy Nelson (Pictured) has been assigned his third different opponent for the May 26th extravaganza. An undisclosed injury has forced Gabriel Gonzaga out of their shootout, which has allowed Dave Herman to serve as a last-minute substitute.
“Big Country” was originally slated to welcome Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva to the big leagues, but Silva was promoted to the card’s co-main event against Cain Velasquez. Velasquez was scheduled to meet Frank Mir in a top contender contest until Mir was moved to the show’s featured attraction to challenge Junior dos Santos for his 265-pound crown.
As everybody knows by now, Alistair Overeem started this chain reaction after flunking his pre-fight drug test.
Nelson has lost three of his last four contests, with his most recent defeat coming in a unanimous decision to Fabricio Werdum.
After dropping his Octagon debut to John-Olav Einemo, Herman rebounded nicely to post a TKO victory over Stefan Struve in February. The veteran has rattled off wins in three of his past four fights.
UFC 146 takes place inside MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Here is the card’s revised roster:
Preliminary Card:
Mike Brown vs. Daniel Pineda
Glover Teixeira vs. Kyle Kingsbury
Dan Hardy vs. Duane Ludwig
(FX 8PM ET/5PM PT)
Paul Sass vs. Jacob Volkmann
Jason “Mayhem” Miller vs. C.B. Dollaway
Edson Barboza vs. Evan Dunham
Diego Brandao vs. Darren Elkins
Main Card:
(Pay-Per-View 10PM ET/7PM PT)
Stephan Struve vs. Mark Hunt
Shane Del Rosario vs. Stipe Miocic
Roy Nelson vs. Dave Herman
Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva
Frank Mir vs. Junior dos Santos (UFC Heavyweight Champion)