Speaking via Sherdog.com Struve said:
“To be honest, I’m not really thinking about [avenging those losses or earning a title shot]. The only thing in my mind right now is that I have to fight Travis Browne. The nice thing with my career is that I just turned 23. There’s no rush. I’m only going to get better in the coming years, so it’s not like I need to beat those guys right now. I’ve got plenty of time.”
“He was disappointed with his performance against Kongo. The first round was OK, but [that fight] didn’t tell me much. I expect him to come out and push the pace, especially in the first round. He’s got heavy hands and kicks, so I need to watch out and not get hit. But I think it’s going to be one hell of a fight, especially for the crowd.”
“I think that all of the aspects of my game have improved since my last fight. I hired [UFC pioneer] Remco Pardoel as my jiu-jitsu trainer. In my opinion, my ground game has improved a lot [between] my last couple of fights. I have a great team and great sparring partners. I’m also training with [Dream light heavyweight champion] Gegard Mousasi’s team — with [K-1 fighter] Daniel Ghita — so I think I’ve improved a lot.”
“The last time I checked my weight, I was 262 [pounds]. We don’t want to do it too fast. After every fight, we just want to get a little bigger and a little stronger. If you do it too fast, you’re going to lose cardio and speed and agility. We don’t want that. I’m only 23 years old, and I’m going to get a lot bigger naturally. I think in two to three years, I’ll be up around 290 [pounds]. I’m adding about five to seven pounds after [every fight]. I just want to keep my body running as smoothly as possible, but I do want to get bigger and stronger. And I need to, because the guys in that division are monsters.”
Struve was last seen inside the octagon at UFC 124 in December, defeating trash talking heavy hitter, Sean McCorkle in the very first round via TKO. He was linked with a fight against Brendan Schaub at UFC 128 but that was quickly scrapped. Stay tuned to MMABay for more build-up to this one as we get it.
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