Vladimir Matyushenko Replaces Roger Hollett To Fight Matt Hamill At UFC 152

Well, this just got a bit more interesting. Today, as announced by the UFC Canada twitter account, Canadian Roger Hollett was forced to withdraw from his fight with Matt Hamill at UFC 152 for an unspecified reason. As a replacement, a fellow veteran of the fight game will be facing off with Hamill, as Vladimir "The Janitor" Matyushenko fills in for Hollett.

Here's the tweet:

Vlad to be here - Matyushenko added to #UFC152 to face Matt Hamill. CDN Roger Hollett out. Tix still available for Sept. 22 tilt at ACC.

— UFC Canada (@UFC_CA) August 20, 2012

Vladimir Matyushenko (26-6, 7-4 UFC) is nearly a fifteen year veteran of mixed martial arts. His career has spanned many different promotions, with a fairly impressive record with the UFC to boot. Three of his four UFC losses have been to men that have been champions at some point; Jon Jones, Andrei Arlovski, and Tito Ortiz, and the fourth come to highly touted light heavyweight, Alexander Gustafsson in his last outing. Vladimir is one of a handful of UFC fighters over 40 years old, and yet he's still a tough challenge for most fighters. He has solid boxing and a respectable wrestling game which suits him well.

Matt Hamill (10-4, 9-4 UFC), while not having been around quite as long as Matyushenko, has also reached a point where it's probably best to refer to him as a veteran. Other than his professional debut in 2005, every fight he's had has been with the UFC. He debuted in the UFC at The Ultimate Fighter 3 finale, knocking out fellow TUF castmate Jesse Forbes in the first round. Since then, he has gone on to beat many notable fighters, including Tim Boetsch, Mark Munoz, and Tito Ortiz. He also has a controversial DQ "win" over current champion, Jon Jones, from their outing back in December of 2009. He is currently coming off of back-to-back losses to Quinton Jackson and Alexander Gustafsson respectively. This bout with Matyushenko will be his first after coming out of retirement, and he'll be looking to score a big win here.

This bout is certainly more worthy of a main card slot than the original matchup, and if anything, it provides a fight between two veterans with similar styles. UFC 152 takes place on September 22nd at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is set to be headlined by a fight between Joseph Benavidez and Demetrious Johnson for the vacant flyweight title.

SBN coverage of UFC 152