Stefan Struve Says He’ll Prove The Rankings Wrong Against Alexander Volkov

Stefan Struve is planning to show why the UFC rankings are bogus in his fight with Alexander Volkov at UFC Fight Night 115. Struve spoke with MMAjunkie ahead of the fight. The highlights are below:

On a possible title shot if he wins: “(A win) puts me right where I want to be. Especially because I have a win over the champ already. That’s interesting; that’s a storyline. He wants that fight back, of course, too. It’s the only blemish on his record – especially after he defended his belt against (Junior) Dos Santos. And then if you look at the rest of the guys: (Alistair) Overeem got knocked out fast. If you ask me what fight you’d rather see, me and Miocic or Overeem and Miocic, people are probably going to pick me, because that’s a different fight with a good storyline. (Ex-champ Cain Velasquez) hasn’t fought in like a year and a half. His last win was over Travis Browne – who’s a glimpse of his former self. (Ex-champ Fabricio Werdum) is fighting (Derrick) Lewis, (Francis) Ngannou doesn’t have a fight, but he’s not ready to fight for the belt, in my opinion. It could put me right there. So we’ll see, man.”

On his struggles before turning things around: “There were some real big issues I was dealing with, all at the same time. That will leave a scar. It needs to heal. I was working very hard, but the only way to get where I am again is to really bite through that part you don’t want to bite through and keep going. Every single time that you don’t feel like (it), just keep on going where you’re going. Bad things happen again, you have a bad fight and all that. A lot of people, in my opinion, would have given up at some point. But I just kept going. Right now I get the reward for all of that.”

On Volkov being ranked higher than him: “Apparently, his two wins ranked him higher than everything I’ve done. I had an injury and I’ve had a layoff a couple of years before that. But I’m not bothered by it. I feel good. It’s going to be good to be in the octagon with my crowd at home already, and get that energy in. It is what it is. He’s ranked No. 7, and I’ll show these rankings are bull(expletive) yet again.”