Author: Stefan Struve

I have a feeling this year is going to be my year. The year I establish myself as one of the best guys in the heavyweight division and start moving up the ladder towards a title shot. Next step arrives this Saturday (May 26), when I take on Lavar Johnson at UFC 146 and seek my third straight UFC win.

Unfortunately for Lavar, he’s meeting me at my very best. I weigh 30 to 35 pounds more than when I made my UFC debut in 2009, a 21-year-old kid all skin and bones, and I’m bigger, better and wiser than back then. Far more confident in my ability, too. I’m surrounded by experienced coaches and training partners, all of whom are experts in various disciplines. As the sport has grown and developed, so too have I. Although I’m still young at 24, I feel just as experienced as the top heavyweights in the world.

Going into my fight on Saturday night, I want to achieve two things, the same two things I aim to achieve each and every time I set foot in the Octagon. Firstly, I want to fight to the best of my ability and do myself proud, and secondly, I want to give the fans a great show. So long as I achieve both of those goals on fight night, I’m always a happy guy.

My 2009 fight against Denis Stojnic is a good example of what makes me happy. That is probably my favorite UFC moment to date and a moment that always puts a smile on my face whenever I recall it. I showed everybody I could hang in the UFC in that fight, and also battled back from adversity early on. Stojnic cut open my face and many people thought the fight was going to be stopped because of the sheer amount of blood pouring from my forehead.

I knew my back was against the wall and knew I probably had to stop Denis before the final bell, which I did. The feeling of locking in that choke and winning the fight was just unbelievable. Even better was knowing that the fans inside the arena, and everybody watching at home, would have had the time of their lives watching the fight. That matters to me just as much as getting the win.

I’m expecting another fun fight this Saturday, as my opponent, Lavar Johnson, is somebody who always brings it hard. He knows only one way to fight – forwards and with lots of aggression. That should make for a great fight, as I won’t be looking to run away or hide. I thrive off my opponent’s aggression and will use any mistakes he makes to exploit his weaknesses.

Lavar looks for that big right hand at all times, and it is a very big right hand. He can clearly punch and has knocked out a lot of guys with that shot. He also likes to press you up against the cage and then unload with everything that he’s got. The one mistake I don’t want to make in this fight is to allow him to push me up against the cage and keep me pinned. As soon as I feel my back to the cage, that means it’s time to get the hell out of there. Although I love pleasing the crowd, it doesn’t pay to be stupid, and you have to realize there’s a time and place to trade punches and get the crowd on their feet.

I’m really confident in my stand-up right now. I think I’ve got a lot better in the last year and, with my height and reach, feel as though I can live with most of the top strikers in MMA. I really want to show that as well. However, it doesn’t take a genius to work out what I plan to do to Lavar on Saturday night. If you look at our strengths, I have far more upside to my game if I take him to the ground and exploit his major weakness. If I take him down in this fight, the fight is done, and he knows that. There’s nothing he can do to argue or stop it. Lavar isn’t stupid – he knows he doesn’t stand a chance against me on the ground.

Ultimately, you’ve got to fight smart in this sport. I’ve very confident that this fight will end via submission or knockout. And I can do either..

Stefan ‘Skyscraper’ Struve fights hard-hitting Lavar Johnson at UFC 146 on Saturday, May 26, live on pay-per-view, Follow @StefanStruve on Twitter for all the latest news ahead of his bout at UFC 146.

Just when you think it’s okay to look forward to your upcoming fight, somebody pulls a rug from under your feet at the last minute. That happened to me on Thursday evening, when I was told my opponent at UFC 146, Mark Hunt, had suffered an injury in training and would be unable to face me on May 26.

The news arrived at a very funny and awkward time actually. I was at my girlfriend’s place and we were looking for potential holidays after the fight. It was then that my manager sent me a text message telling me I needed to call him immediately because Mark Hunt was injured and out of the fight. At that moment I panicked, as I wasn’t sure whether I’d still be fighting or not. I didn’t want my whole training camp to go to waste. Luckily, I spoke with my manager and he told me Lavar had already been put in place as the stand-in opponent – I was delighted. It’s a really cool fight.

I just wanted to fight, and didn’t mind who I was put up against. Obviously, Hunt would have been a great opponent, and is somebody I look up to, but it was important to just get some sort of fight. By Thursday evening, I didn’t really care who it was against.

As it turned out, Lavar Johnson is every bit as exciting for me as Hunt was. Credit to him for stepping up to the plate. All in all, Lavar is a big, strong guy who likes to stand and punch, and he’s also far easier to take down than Hunt. I truly believe Mark has better takedown defense than Lavar, and that makes it a fun fight for me.

After learning who my new opponent would be, I did a little bit of research, but already knew plenty about him. Lavar fought two weeks ago against my friend, Pat Barry, and that was a fight I have now watched a couple of times. I also saw Johnson’s fight with Joey Beltran and a few of his Strikeforce fights from the last couple of years.

The next day I went to train with my BJJ coach and gather his thoughts on the match-up. He is the guy who tells me what to go for and what not to go for on the ground, and we discussed this fight with Johnson at length on Friday.

In the end, it doesn’t matter who they put in front of me – the fight is still just three rounds of five minutes. Nothing changes. I’m not suddenly being asked to fight ten rounds of ten minutes.

Of course, it goes without saying, it would have been an absolute honor to fight Mark Hunt. I’ve been watching Mark’s fights for years and was genuinely excited at the prospect of testing my skills against him. I hope he gets well soon and doesn’t suffer too much as a result of the injury. It would be great to fight him at some point in the future and pick up where we left off. He’s great for the sport and, so long as he can continue performing the way he’s done recently, that man’s going in the right direction.

It’s a shame I won’t be fighting Mark at UFC 146, but I’m more than happy with my new fight. Besides, I can’t afford to live in the past – Lavar Johnson currently stands in my way of getting where I want to get in this sport and it’s him, not Hunt, who I must now beat. Although they may have different faces, different bodies and a different set of skills, both Johnson and Hunt are still obstacles that needed conquering. That doesn’t change, no matter who the actual person is. In order for me to keep living the dream in the UFC, I have to do my best to defeat everybody in my path, be it Mark Hunt or Lavar Johnson. It doesn’t matter to me…

Stefan ‘Skyscraper’ Struve fights veteran Mark Hunt at UFC 146 on Saturday, May 26, live on pay-per-view. Follow @StefanStruve on Twitter for all the latest news ahead of his bout at UFC 146.

I started my camp about eight weeks ago, and it’s a great feeling to know we’re almost done and ready to fight. The hard training is pretty much finished, and I’m now just focused on staying in one piece and not coming down with any injuries or illness before the fight. So, although I’m still working very hard in camp, I’m also being very careful.

You always have good and bad days in training, but I wouldn’t swap my job for the world. Believe me, I’m not the kind of guy that can happily sit behind a desk and work a nine-to-five. This is what I do and I enjoy every moment of it, even the training sessions that drag on and destroy your body. When you get to this point – a week or two from the fight – you can really feel the benefit of all that hard work, and it’s great to feel in shape and physically fit.

Also, you might think that because I’m 6-foot-11 my body suffers more from training than it should, but that’s not really the case. And, if it is the case, it’s something I’m used to now anyway. As you can imagine, I’ve always been a pretty tall guy – that’s all I’ve ever known. When I was eleven or twelve years old, I really started to grow and shoot up above my classmates. I’ve been used to being the big kid in the playground all my life, and that hasn’t really changed since joining the UFC and competing as a mixed martial artist. I’m now the tallest guy on the UFC roster and, in many ways, it’s just like being back at school again.

It’s a strange feeling, because I don’t believe I’m any different to the 5-foot-10 heavyweights like Mark Hunt or Pat Barry. Sure, I’m a little bit taller and longer, but I’ve grown up in this body and frame all of my life, so it’s nothing new or weird to me. I just see myself as being the same as them, only I’m able to see over large crowds of people, while they might struggle.

I never played basketball – tried once, was useless – but I did used to play center back on soccer teams in Holland. I figured back then I’d either make it as a center forward, winning balls in the air and getting on the end of crosses, or as a dominant center back, winning balls in the air and stopping crosses. I didn’t exactly have the build to be a quick and agile winger.

Football was a passing phase, though, and it was the K-1 fights on TV that first attracted me to combat sports. I would have only been ten or eleven at the time, but always remember tuning in to watch those events. My brother would also bring home a lot of DVDs of Pride events, and that was something different altogether. I had never heard of MMA before that time, and couldn’t believe there was something out there that encouraged kicking and punching in addition to wrestling and jiu-jitsu. The whole concept was fascinating.

My next opponent, Mark Hunt, was actually one of the guys I watched a lot of during my teenage years. He has competed in both K-1 and Pride, and was always somebody who loved to stand and trade kicks and punches. His style of fighting was a personal favorite of mine and, to be honest, I was a big fan of Mark for many years.

My brother was also an inspiration during this time. He was already training MMA, and had even had a couple of fights. So, when I turned 14, he decided to take me to the gym and, it’s fair to say, I haven’t looked back since. The day I set foot inside that gym was the day I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

On my first day of training we were doing a lot of bag and pad work, and I remember going to school the next day and being unable to write with a pen because my hand was still shaking from impact. The teachers couldn’t understand why I was so behind on my work, but I knew it was because I’d been hitting the heavy bags so hard.

Despite my early love of punching, I’ve never been the type of guy to get involved in fights away from the gym. That’s just not my thing. Even as a kid, I was never the sort to scrap in the playground. Also, I towered over a lot of kids my age, so they would have been foolish to pick a fight with me.

Still, when I was 18, I started working as a bouncer to make some money and help out my parents, and that was a real eye opener for me, as many fights would break out on a nightly basis. You always hoped they wouldn’t – and did your best to prevent them – but alcohol and testosterone is never a good mix. Working the door consisted of lots of late nights and fist fights, though I tried to stop the fights before they got out of hand. Looking back, I’m now happy I get paid to fight and can get to bed at a reasonable time.

That was my life before the UFC. As you can see, I’m happy to be where I am right now, and can see beyond the aches and pains that follow an eight-week training camp. Come May 26, I know it will have all been worth it…

Stefan ‘Skyscraper’ Struve fights veteran Mark Hunt at UFC 146 on Saturday, May 26, live on pay-per-view. You can follow Struve on Twitter (@StefanStruve) for all the latest news ahead of his bout at UFC 146.