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Stefan Struve Says Everything Fell Apart After His Fight With Stipe Miocic

May 3, 2016 | Posted by Joseph Lee

In an interview with MMA Fighting, Stefan Struve spoke about recovering from his health issues. In 2013, he was diagnosed with an enlarged heart and a bicuspid aortic valve. He had to take a break. When he was set to come back in 2014 against Matt Mitrione at UFC 175, he blacked out backstage and the fight was cancelled. Now he’s aiming for another return, this time against Antonio Silva at UFC Fight Night 87. Here are highlights:

On his health issues: “Everything kind of fell apart for me after the fight with Stipe [Miocic]. In my opinion, the fight with Mark [Hunt], I lost that one because my heart condition was at its worst at that point and I was pretty sick before the fight. That together just led to my body quitting on me in the fight. To be honest with you guys that was the biggest hurdle I had to overcome in my training. I never really worry about fighting. But in the fight with Alistair Overeem, not so much in the fight with Noguiera because I got going, but also in the fight with Rosholt I had trouble finding my rhythm and I was constantly thinking about ‘should I hit the gas now or should I just wait until the second round? You don’t want to get tired like that fight with Hunt where your body gave up.’ I never really got super tired in that fight because my conditioning is good and we always make sure I’m in tip top shape. But that fight with Hunt, my body just quit on me and I had to hang on for like ten minutes and wasn’t able to do much and he was just battering me, beating me. How my body felt that fight was such a scary experience. That was the biggest hurdle to overcome, to be able to hit the gas in the fight and start hunting immediately and that’s exactly what I did this training camp so that makes me feel really good.”

On how his training has been different: “One of the things my coaches really wanted to see more in this training camp was aggression. I was doing my thing the last couple training camps but when I would have a guy up against the fence or in a bad spot I would take my foot off the pedal and let them get back into the sparring or the fight, whatever you want to call it. And this time they were like, ‘if you get someone up against the cage we want to see you finish it…We want to see more aggression we want to see you be focused on finishing the fight.’ I dropped a ton of guys in sparring and it’s definitely going to pay off this Sunday. It’s going to translate perfectly to the fight in my opinion.”

On how he feels now: “I feel really good. I think I’m faster. If I fight with my reach and get my jab going and my teep going then he’s in for a hard night and I’m going to drop him….I’m walking around at 275. My gas tank feels great. Everything is there you know. When I entered the UFC I was 230 pounds. I feel so strong and dominated in sparring so much, I couldn’t be more ready for this fight to put on the best performance in front of my family and friends.”

article topics :

Stefan Struve, UFC, Joseph Lee