5 UFC fighters who should retire in 2019

#5 Stefan Struve

Stefan Struve has taken some horrendous punishment in his UFC career

Heavyweight is renowned for being a division suited to older fighters – the likes of Andrei Arlovski, Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum – men who seem to have been around forever – are all still highly relevant near the summit, and even the ripe old age of 40 doesn’t seem quite as ancient at Heavyweight as it would elsewhere.

The problem that comes with fighting at Heavyweight, of course, is one of sheer damage. The big men hit far harder than fighters in the smaller divisions and thus it’s easy to see exactly why a knockout at Heavyweight can cause far more harm than one at say, Lightweight.

And one man in the UFC who’s taken more damage than most at Heavyweight is Stefan Struve.

‘Skyscraper’ is only 30 years old – far younger than the likes of Overeem and Arlovski – and yet in his 39-fight career, which dates back to 2005, he’s taken seven horrific knockouts. That number is admittedly less than some of his peers, but Struve appears to be hurt or stunned in almost every one of his fights, even ones where he’s come back to win.

Essentially, despite standing at 7’0” tall and having an insane reach of 84.5”, Struve has never quite figured out how to use his size to his advantage – his jab, which ought to be a ramrod, has never properly worked for him and his chin remains worryingly high in most of his fights – making it an easy target for some of the sport’s heaviest hitters.

Struve has been getting hurt in his fights in the UFC for almost a decade now but right now he’s probably at his lowest point – he’s lost three in a row and the dangerous ground game he once boasted appears to be waning as well.

That’s why it’s time for the giant Dutchman to step away from the sport – for his own good before he ends up taking one knockout too many.