By Ryan Young
UFC on FUEL TV 5 provided the MMA world with some awesome highlights and a first-hand look at some young fighters that could make a big impact in the UFC a little down the road.
Perhaps most impressive was the re-emergence of Stefan Struve as a legitimate heavyweight, something a lot of people questioned after the 24-year-old suffered three devastating knockouts inside the Octagon early in his career.
The seven-footer’s second-round TKO of undefeated Stipe Miocic in the night’s main event put everyone on notice that even though the youngster has gone through trials and tribulations he has the ability to not only bounce back, but improve significantly.
That said, the notion that the Dutch fighter is anywhere near the top-five of the division, which Struve and Dana White want us to believe, makes me want to invite “The Skyscraper” to smack me with some of the powerful uppercuts he stopped Miocic with.
The MMA community is an easily excitable one, as can be seen in post-fight press conferences when merely minutes after fighters put on a great performance we poke and pry to find out when, and who, is next for them. For Struve, coming off of his first main event, never has his stock been higher and, intelligently, he took the opportunity to call out a top dog in Fabricio Werdum.
But has he really earned the right to be considered top-five and get that marquee of a matchup? I mean, it’s hard to make an argument he’s even in the top 10…
Struve has a lot going for him — four straight wins, all finishes, and six victories in his last seven bouts. On top of that, win or lose he’s always been entertaining, going the distance just once in 30 professional fights.
While those are good numbers, one must look past that and take into account who those Ws have come against. Christian Morecraft, Sean McCorkle, Pat Barry, Dave Herman, Lavar Johnson? Last time I checked none of those guys have ever come within a whiff of a title shot.
Beating Miocic is easily the biggest accolade of Struve’s career — the American was undefeated and had/still has a tremendous amount of potential — but what noteworthy opponent has the former baseball player ever beaten? Joey Beltran, who now fights at 205 pounds? Phil De Fries (who?)? Shane del Rosario (zero UFC victories)?
By no means is this article intended to critique Struve and belittle his accomplishment on Saturday night, but when you look around it’s belittling to the guys that deserve the top-five recognition that his name is even being mentioned.
Let’s get the obvious ones out of the way…
Junior dos Santos, Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem are the top dogs at heavyweight and you’d be hard-pressed to make a decent argument to the contrary.
Take it down a level and there are still the likes of Werdum (two losses in his last nine, against much stiffer competition in JDS and Overeem), Frank Mir, a two-time heavyweight champ, and Daniel Cormier, undefeated and coming off a win over a much more established name in Josh Barnett than anyone Struve has beat.
So there are six guys, and I don’t see how Struve jumps Roy Nelson and Travis Browne in the rankings with a victory over Miocic after both of them knocked him out pretty convincingly in the first round.
Lastly, Shane Carwin has been out of the win column for a while but with a win over the aforementioned Mir, and his only losses coming to the current champ (JDS) and a former one (Brock Lesnar), the slugger shouldn’t be punished too harshly for fighting championship-level competition as opposed to someone with under 10 career fights (Miocic).
That leaves Struve and Barnett for the final spot in the top 10, and that can be decided by the flip of a coin in my books.
Sure, I may been overthinking this one and simply raining on Struve’s parade but what can I say, the thought of him being considered a top-five heavyweight, at least right now, got a rise out of me.
Then again, that’s the world of MMA where sometimes our memories are shorter than a good heavyweight tilt.
Who knows, by next weekend Browne could steal all of Struve’s momentum with a scintillating KO of Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva…
And his spot in the “top-five.”
Ryan Young is the lead reporter for MMA360.ca and a regular contributor to sportsnet.ca’s MMA section. Follow him on Twitter @YoungRyan4.
