Stefan Struve oustruck Stipe Miocic tonight in the main event of ‘UFC On Fuel TV 5’, claiming a second round TKO victory.
Miocic seemed to have no problem engaging with the much taller and rangier Struve in the early stage of this fight, landing the more meaningful strikes as he used his speed to get into range quickly.
Struve seemed to be feeling his way into the fight and in the opening half of the round he only really came to life once, landing a strong head kick and tried to follow up with a jumping knee strike, but Miocic circled out of danger.
Miocic is working nicely to the body at times and then opts for a takedown, but Struve is immediately fishing for a submission and so Miocic opts to back out and let him stand again.
A right hand from Miocic stops Struve in his tracks for a moment, but he’s ok. Miocic continues to mix up his strikes nicely until the end of the round.
Struve comes out striking with more purpose in the second round, firing off his jab solidly which helps keep Miocic at bay a little more, though he’s still able to pounce forward at imtes and dig to the body effectively.
‘The Skyscraper’s’ building momentum though and as his confidence grows he starts landing heavier shots that are clearly hurting Miocic who’s stuck in reverse gear now. In fact at one stage Struve even begins literally running after him in his eagerness to continue putting him under pressure.
Miocic bites down on his gumshield and swings for the fences, and a punch does connect cleanly and seems to stagger struve backwards for a second, but he bounces back of the cage and presses forward in determined fashion.
Miocic eats more punches and is pretty much just in survival mode now. Up against the cage Struve starts firing off a barrage of strikes. A straight right rocks Miocic and is followed by a series of uppercuts, each snapping his head back.
One final punch sends the already wobbled Miocic down onto his hands and knees just as the referee rightly rushes in to award Struve the TKO finish with 3.50mins of the second round gone.
After a slow first round Struve really stepped things up a gear in the second and impressed with the power of his strikes which had the tough Miocic in all sorts of trouble and resulted in the first loss of his career.
Struve’s now on a four-fight winning streak and should be on course for a bigger name opponent next time out.
