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After hinting at retirement following his recent win over
Marcos
Rogerio de Lima, Stefan
Struve will be back in the Octagon to face fellow veteran
Ben
Rothwell, who is looking to snap a three-fight skid. The two
big heavyweights will lock horns on Dec. 7 at the Capitol One Arena
in Washington, D.C., for
UFC on ESPN 7. Here is a numerical breakdown of their upcoming
matchup.
Age, height and arm reach
At 38 years old, Rothwell is seven years older than Struve. The
Dutch heavyweight towers over everyone in the Ultimate Fighting
Championship at seven feet, but Rothwell at 6-foot-4 is an imposing
figure himself. Naturally, though, Struve has the longer reach of
84.5 inches to Rothwell’s 78.5.
Wins by knockout
Struve owns eight victories via KO or TKO, with victims that
include the likes of Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and Dave Herman.
His most notable knockout win, however, came in the main event of
UFC on Fuel TV 5 when he stopped future heavyweight champion
Stipe
Miocic. In the first round, Miocic was getting the better of
Struve on the feet, but then Struve stepped on the gas in Round 2,
utilized his reach advantage more effectively and ultimately poured
on enough offense to put Miocic away. Seven fights later, Miocic
won the UFC heavyweight title.
Owner of some of the heaviest hands in the division, Rothwell
carries a total of 27 wins by KO or TKO. Most of those knockouts
happened before his stint in the UFC, although he has starched some
Octagon notables such as Alistair
Overeem, Brandon Vera
and Brendan
Schaub.
Rothwell has snagged a bunch of submissions of his own. He now has
six overall, which includes back-to-back submission finishes of
Matt
Mitrione and former UFC heavyweight champion Josh
Barnett.
First-round finishes
Struve holds 16 stoppages inside the first round. Rothwell, on the
other hand, has 28. From September 2005 to December 2006, the pride
of Kenosha, Wisconsin, was able to score eight consecutive
first-round finishes. In the course of that run, Rothwell stopped
UFC and Pride veteran Dan Bobish and
future UFC standout Krzysztof
Soszynski. Struve, on the other hand, holds 16 first-round
finishes, most notably his 16-second stoppage of Bigfoot at UFC
Fight Night 87.
Ben Rothwell
Stefan "Skyscraper" Struve
