By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Reporter
TWO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) tallest fighters met yesterday at “UFC Fight Night 115” in Rotterdam, Netherlands, with Russian heavyweight Alexander “Drago” Volkov on the winning end, beating hometown bet Stefan “Skyscraper” Struve by technical knockout (punches) in the third round.
Six-foot-seven Volkov was in his element right from the opening bell, bucking early hits by seven-foot Struve while throwing some heavy punches of his own as the first round wore on.
Round two started with both fighters exchanging blows before an accidental eye poke by Mr. Struve momentarily halted the fight.
When proceedings resumed the two connected with solid hits but much like in the first round, the Russian would pick up the ante and unloaded hard combinations to hurt his opponent just as time expired for the round.
Looking to make up for lost ground, Dutch Struve began the third round aggressively by jabbing at the body of the Russian.
Mr. Volkov, the no. 7-ranked fighter, eventually got his footing and exchanged blows with Mr. Struve (#8) after which the former had the latter’s back on the cage and shelled and rained combinations on him that had Mr. Struve’s legs buckling down to the canvas.
That marked the end for Mr. Struve as sensing he has his opponent cornered for the finish, Mr. Volkov went for it and rained hard shots from which his opponent had no answer to, prompting the referee to stop the fight at the 3:30 mark of the round and give the win to Mr. Volkov.
The win was the third straight in the UFC for Mr. Volkov (29-6), a former Bellator and M-1 heavyweight champion, while Mr. Struve (28-9) lost his first fight in his last three matches.
“It feels great to win. I would like to thank the people from Russia who came here to support me and I hope you enjoyed the show me and Stefan put up,” said Mr. Volkov, who now holds the second longest winning streak in the heavyweight division in the UFC, in the post-fight interview.
“Stefan and I have similar styles so I had to adjust my game but as promised I stopped the fight in three rounds. I’m ready for anybody. I want to be on top,” he added.
In earlier fights, middleweight Siyar Bahadurzada beat Rob Wilkinson by TKO in the second round (punches); women’s bantamweight Marion Reneau defeated Talita Bernardo by TKO in the second round (punches); and welterweight Leon Edwards edged Bryan Barberena by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28 and 29-28).
Next for the UFC is “UFC 215” that will feature the flyweight title fight between champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and challenger Ray “The Tazmexican Devil” Borg in Edmonton, Canada, on Sept. 10 (Manila time).
In the Philippines, Cignal TV, the country’s foremost direct-to-home (DTH) company, is the home of the UFC after the two groups agreed to an extensive deal that will see the UFC beamed on various platforms.
