You look at Stefan Struve and you can see why his nickname is ‘Skyscraper’ at 6ft 11, he is the tallest fighter in the UFC. What a lot of people do not realize that Struve is only 23 years old and has already had 30 fights which is quite remarkable considering how young he is.
Struve (25-5 MMA, 5-3 UFC) faces Pat Barry (6-3 MMA, 3-3 UFC) on Saturday night at UFC on Versus 6 that takes place in Washington DC. In Struve’s last fight, which was a defeat against Travis Browne at UFC 130, Struve learned a lot from that fight and plans to use his experience against Barry.
“I got a lot of experience,” Struve told us. “I got a long road ahead of me, so I’m only going to get better with all the experience I got. I learned from every single fight. I learned from my last fight (Browne). I learned from my defeats in the UFC. I lost a couple fights, but you know this is the UFC. The best guys in the world in the heavyweight division. I’m only 23, people tend to forget that I already have a 25-5 record. This is going to be my ninth fight in the UFC. People have seen me fight for a long time, they tend to forget I’m 23. I may fight until I’m 35, so I got a long road ahead and I plan to get that belt in a couple years.”
When the UFC announced this fight a couple months back, this was a fight that the fans were really excited. Struve was no exception as he felt the same way the fans did.
“I got excited, I got a boost in training, I knew it was going to be an exciting fight,” says Struve. “He’s (Barry) an exciting fighter. I will try to fight an exciting fight, its going to be awesome. He’s a great kickboxer, I’m training in Holland with some of the best kickboxers in the world. I get better at kickboxing every single fight.. I been doing this since I was 14, so its going to be a fun fight. I’m not scared to kickbox with him. I know how to check kicks, I know how to throw kicks, its going to be a really fun fight in my opinion.”
In a lot of fights lately fighters have a disdain, but this fight is different as Struve and Barry have shown a mutual respect for each other via Twitter leading into Saturday’s fight.
“We respect each other and I have known Pat for about two and half, three years,” says Struve. “We’ve always been cool with each other, so there’s no reason now that we are fighting to act any differently or do stupid things. I consider him a friend sort of as a friend. I got respect for him, but that’s not gunna affect my performance on Saturday. saturday, I’m try to kick his head off in the third row. After the fight, I will get him a beer.”
You can listen to the entire interview at sportstownchicago.com.
Stay tuned to MMASucka.com for all of your UFC on Versus 6 coverage.
