UFC 124 Preview Part Three: Sean McCorkle vs. Stefan Struve

Previews, Top Story

Come this Friday when it is time for Stefan Struve (20-4: 4 KOs, 14 SUBs) and Sean McCorkle (10-0: 4 KOs, 5 SUBs) to weigh in for their Heavyweight clash at UFC 124 their poundage will most likely be virtually identical (let’s say 265 a piece). But come Saturday, after McCorkle has had time to rehydrate and re-inflate his natural size and strength advantage will be all too apparent. Struve will still have his height, McCorkle will have everything else and it will possibly be enough to tilt the fight in his direction.

Oddly positioned as the co-main event this match between two up and comers will hopefully clarify their currently murky futures. Struve, only 22, has already battled his way across Europe and racked up six UFC fights. He’s won four of them, but in his battles against Junior Dos Santos and Roy Nelson he choked in rather humiliating fashion. He is one of a select few that has amassed bonuses for Submission and Knockout of the Night (Chase Gormley and Christian Morecraft respectively) but that still hasn’t been enough to blow my hair back. Take him last fight at UFC 117 against Morecraft. Round 1 saw him thoroughly trounced, 10-8 if we want to cut him some slack, as he was left dazed and bloodied and gassed. Then, out of sheer desperation, he came out of the corner for Round 2 swinging like a madman. To my eyes he looked clumsy and his punches looked slow and predictable but no matter, they worked beautifully and sent Morecraft crashing to the mat as Struve earned a miraculous victory.

So while Struve’s problem has been an inability to impress, McCorkle’s is that he remains a gigantic question mark to me and the MMA world in general. How much can you really know about a guy who has never fought professionally outside of Indianapolis? His record is in mint condition so I think we can safely declare him the Heavyweight champ of Indy but will that success translate once he takes his show on the road? He will be making his second UFC appearance after he forced Mark Hunt to tap to an aggressive kimura in the first round back at UFC 119. Struve will be a step up in competition but, like I said, not a dramatic one. To get himself hyped for the fight McCorkle has been smack talking through his Twitter account and while he’s certainly won the war of words (the best Struve has been able to muster is stating that he is going to decapitate McCorkle) the war inside the cage should prove much more difficult. I’m going to go ahead and buy into what McCorkle’s selling for this weekend and pick him to have a repeat performance stopping Struve in the opening frame. It might be the kimura again or it might be something else but I do see the Dutchman submitting one way or another.

Pick: McCorkle via 1st Round Submission