Things didn’t go to plan for Stefan Struve (29-11 MMA, 13-9 UFC), but he quickly righted the ship and rallied to submit Marcos Rogerio de Lima (16-6-1 MMA, 5-4 UFC).
The heavyweight bout was the co-main event of today’s UFC on ESPN+ 3 show at O2 arena in Prague, Czech Republic. It streamed on ESPN+ following prelims on ESPN2.
Struve waded forward at the opening bell, and a wild de Lima right sent him immediately to the canvas. Struve recovered quickly as de Lima pushed down the floor, tying things up underneath and looking for options. Heavy on top, de Lima tried to keep the pressure high, though Struve used his lengthy limbs to seek out options. A kimura was briefly teased, but Struve was forced to bail on the attempt and go back to defending himself from big strikes. A de Lima forearm pushed down on Struve’s throat, and big right hands found their mark. Struve did his best to simply hold on from underneath, though he certainly took some damage in the process.
Struve was the one who engaged the clinch in the second, and he was able to drive de Lima to the floor with relative ease and step over one leg into his opponent’s half-guard. As Struve tried to clear his other leg, de Lima was forced to deal with the advances of the massive frame. Struve used the opportunity to set up an arm-triangle choke, patiently working the position in place from mount and squeezing for a quick tap from de Lima at the 2:21 mark of the round.
Afterward, Struve said while he wasn’t 100 percent certain, he was leaning toward walking away from the sport at just 31 years old, laying his gloves down in the center of the cage before exiting the octagon.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a long time,” Struve said after his win. “Everybody knows about my heart issue, and it was a lot harder to come back than I thought – especially the mental part.
“I had a nice streak. Stipe (Miocic) was the champ, and I had already beaten him, so I thought a title shot could have been close if I beat (Alexander) Volkov. It didn’t happen, and then I had some injuries to deal with. I think my body is good. I don’t want to continue and get to the point where I fall apart. I just got a beautiful choke submission. I think that’s a great way to go out.”
Up-to-the-minute UFC on ESPN+ 3 results include:
- Stefan Struve def. Marcos Rogerio de Lima via submission (arm-triangle choke) – Round 2, 2:21
- Michal Oleksiejczuk def. Gian Villante via knockout (punch) – Round 1, 1:34
- Liz Carmouche def. Lucie Pudilova via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
- Petr Yan def. John Dodson via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Magomed Ankalaev def. Klidson Farias via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
- Dwight Grant def. Carlo Pedersoli Jr. via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 4:59
- Chris Fishgold def. Daniel Teymur via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 1:10
- Gillian Robertson def. Veronica Macedo via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 3:27
- Damir Hadzovic def. Marco Polo Reyes via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 2:03
- Ismail Naurdiev def. Michel Prazeres via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)
- Diego Ferreira def. Rustam Khabilov via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
- Damir Ismagulov def. Joel Alvarez via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
For complete coverage of UFC on ESPN+ 3, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
