After blasting through then top five heavyweight and heavily favored Fabricio Werdum at UFC 90 in October, Team Nogueria’s Junior Dos Santos (7-1) is looking to prove he isn’t a one hit wonder. The Brazilian heavyweight showed what kind of power and striking ability he brings into the Octagon with a devastating uppercut that laid out Werdum to the surprise of many including Fabricio himself. Now at UFC 95 this Saturday he will get the opportunity to show everyone that his win over Werdum wasn’t a fluke and that he is a fighter all other UFC heavyweights should keep an eye on.
His opponent who is making his UFC debut this Saturday is Stefan Struve (16-2) from Holland and a member of Team Schrijber. Having come from Holland, the first thought would be that Struve is all about kickboxing as Holland has produced some of the most successful K-1 fighters ever with Semmy Schilt, Remy Bonjasky and Ernest Hoost being just a few of the many great kickboxers the country has produced.
However if one looks closely at his record they will see that twelve of his sixteen wins have come by submission. Even more remarkable is the fact that six of those submission victories are by triangle choke. He already has beaten two UFC veterans in Collin Robinson (9-5) and in his last victory he submitted UFC veteran Mario Neto by rear naked choke back in November.
This bout is scheduled to be the last preliminary fight before the main show goes live. Santos has already shown he has knockout ability and even though Struve has won mostly with submissions you know coming from Holland he has striking ability. It might be an undercard fight, but it definitely has the potential to be explosive and the UFC and Spike might just end up finding a way to show it on the live broadcast.
By: Dusty Adams