UFC heavyweight Stefan Struve has been diagnosed with a leaking aortic valve and an enlarged heart, according to a statement made by his management late Tuesday evening.

In an explanation sent to MMAFighting.com, Lex McMahon of Alchemist Management explained that Struve’s condition left him hospitalized for a week.

The full statement is below

“Stefan Struve has recently been diagnosed with a leaking aortic valve and an enlarged heart and was hospitalized for a week to undergo testing to determine the best course of treatment. The doctors found that Stefan has a bicuspid aortic valve, which means that his aortic valve only has two leaflets, instead of three.
The aortic valve regulates blood flow from the heart into the aorta, the major blood vessel that brings blood to the body. In combination with the enlarged heart it causes his heart to only pump 70 percent of the blood into the aorta and then the rest of his body, and the remaining 30 percent ends up back in the heart chamber. After consulting experts in both Holland and the United States, it was decided to treat the condition with medication for the next two months and asses the effectiveness of that treatment protocol. After those 2 months, the doctors will have an answer on what the best treatment options are.

“At the direction of his doctors, Stefan has now been released from the hospital and has resumed light cardiovascular exercise. Stefan fully appreciates the significance of the condition he has been diagnosed with, however, he is optimistic about the eventual outcome and fully plans on living a long, healthy, active, happy life and eventually returning to competition in the octagon for his quest to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion.

“Stefan loves the UFC and plans on being involved with company as a fighter and ambassador for years to come.  Stefan wants to thank all the fans who have supported him thus far in his career as well as the UFC, Dana White, Lorenzo Fertita, Joe Silva, Dr. Jeff Davidson, the entire staff of the UFC, and his fellow fighters for affording him the opportunity to compete on the biggest stage of the sport of MMA, as well as a tremendous degree of support during this trying time. In particular Stefan wants to thank Dana White, Lorenzo Fertita, & Joe Silva for immediately getting engaged with this issue and providing Stefan access to the best possible medical care. Stefan will be sharing his experiences as he deals with this medical condition in the hopes that he can serve as a role model by helping to create awareness and inspire others to fight through adversity.”

Struve later sent messages through Twitter to all the people giving him support.

In the video interview above, UFC welterweight Dan Hardy opens up about a number of topics, including the heart condition that took him out of his UFC on Fox 7 fight with Matt Brown. Check it out.

Props to FightHub TV for the clip.

Dan Hardy (pictured) has been removed from the UFC on Fox 7 card due to a heart condition. Photo by Josh Hedges for Zuffa LLC/Getty Images

Another fighter from the UFC on Fox 7 card has been removed.

Dan Hardy was scheduled to face Matt Brown on April 20, but tests diagnosed the Englishman with Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, a type of cardiac arrhythmia that can lead to death in cases with excessive physical activity. The UFC announced Hardy’s removal late Thursday.

The California State Athletic Commission (CSAC), the governing body overseeing the event, informed the athlete that he would not be able to compete on the card due to the condition.

“Sorry guys, I couldn’t be more disappointed,” Hardy posted on Twitter. “Turns out I have a wolf heart and the California commission won’t clear me to fight.”

Hardy’s manager, Wad Alameddine, later provided a statement to AddictedMMA.com, in which he explained the situation in further detail.

The full, unedited statement is as follows:

“There’s been a lot of speculation online in the last 24 hours or so regarding Mr Hardy being forced out of his fight with Matt Brown next month, so I wanted to clarify the situation and provide some details.

“On Tuesday this week Dan went and had his medicals done as per normal, however because the fight is in California there was an EKG performed as well as the usual standard medicals done in every other states (normally; blood work, physical, MRI, etc).

“On Wednesday his EKG results came back showing an irregularity which has been diagnosed as Wolff Parkinson White Syndrome, which incidentally my wife also suffers from. However unlike my wife who has symptoms of the syndrome (including heart palpitations and tachycardia), Dan has never shown any symptoms of the syndrome and therefore it has come as a surprise to us all as this is something you are born with, rather than develop.

“Since this news, Dan has been back to hospital and had several tests run on him with a cardiologist, which included an Ultrasound as well as a high-level stress test to study his heart and how it responds to exercise. To say Dan has a very strong and healthy heart would be an understatement! The tests he did not only showed he has a phenomenal resting heart rate of 42bpm, but he also broke the record for the stress test he did which was held by a marathon runner for over a year.

“Sadly the commission will not clear him for the fight with Brown so the UFC were forced to draft in Jordan Mein as a replacement for Dan. It’s a great shame that the athletic commission simply take a reading from an EKG and decide whether he can or cannot fight, rather than looking at the evidence of the last 30 years of Dan’s life without a single symptom of the syndrome, the 10 year sports career he’s had, and the tests he’s also performed this week…….amongst other things.

“As you can imagine with everything (we felt) stacked in our favour, the “not cleared to fight” message we received was a very big shock, particularly after 10 years of competition and no issues. Anyway right now we’re talking to the UFC about what’s next and we’ll keep everyone updated as and when we have further information.”

The UFC quickly gave Brown a new opponent, young Canadian fighter Jordan Mein, who knocked out Dan Miller at UFC 158.

UFC on Fox 7 has been hampered by an assortment of injuries. An interesting note is that the replacements have been athletes who just competed at UFC 158.

• Darren Elkins replaced Clay Guida against Chad Mendes. He defeated Antonio Carvalho at UFC 158.

• Jordan Mein replaced Dan Hardy against Matt Brown. He defeated Dan Miller at UFC 158.

• T.J. Dillashaw replaced Francisco Rivera replaces Hugo Viana. He defeated Issei Tamura at UFC 158.