Attempted Reset in Rotterdam
Momentum is everything in sports as for any sport and any league it is all about how much a team or an athlete has done for them lately.
There is a sense of enjoying what has come and the history of a sport or a league but everyone wants the newest and best thing.
In the fight world that is an even bigger factor as fighters are solo and what they bring to the table is all on them.
With the way that MMA is moving right now with new prospects and better fighters constantly coming fighters need to make noise immediately and not stop.
Fans will forget a fighter pretty easily if they take a number of months off and if they begin to lose fights regularly.
A meteoric rise of a fighter can turn into a meteoric fall for a fighter with one or two straight losses.
Fighters go from promising prospects to workmen in a matter of a couple of months if they can’t keep their name in the news.
That is what has given rise to the talking that so many fighters are beginning to employ as they try to keep their names in the conversation.
Taking a lot of time off can easily make a run at the title disappear because the demand to see that fighter has disappeared.
That is what Stefan Struve was facing as he entered another main event fight in his home country of the Netherlands.
Struve was a great prospect and began losing then rattled off two straight wins in what looked like a new sense of purpose for the tallest fighter in the UFC.
Then he was forced to the sidelines for 11 months and people began to forget about the Skyscraper.
He was just beginning to build his reputation back up as one of the top fighters in the heavyweight division.
People were beginning to get excited about his return to the top of the division as the heavyweights needed some new stars.
The year off has left him without much of a boost and as a result, the heavyweight division simply moved on without him.
After his time off Struve returned to the octagon looking to gain some momentum back from his two straight wins.
If he could take a win in his return he could put himself into the title conversation again and an impressive win would bring him back into the conversation of potential contenders.
Of course, the fact that the list of contenders isn’t full of new names was sure to help Struve with a win as well.
All that was left was for Struve to come out with that renewed purpose that he had found and take out a rising prospect.
Alexander Volkov came into UFC Fight Night 115 with two fights but they were pretty impressive wins against some veterans of the sport.
He took on a big fight in Struve in order to step up his competition and see if he could launch himself into the title conversation as one of the top prospects.
Both Volkov and Francis N’Gannou are among the only promising prospects in the division and beating Struve would have added another big veteran to his record of wins.
Both fighters came out clearly prepared to keep the fight on the feet and they began swinging away.
For the first time in a long time, Struve was fighting another tall fighter and although he was still the taller and longer fighter it seemed to give him some problems.
Struve continued to come in close not using his length as well as he should have, which meant he began taking a lot of punishment.
Volkov took his punishment as well but Struve began taking more damage as the fight went on and Volkov began finding a home for bigger shots.
Eventually, those shots wore on Struve and Volkov dropped him in the third round ending the fight and taking the big win.
Struve couldn’t find that new life that he had before and as a result, he took a loss that will only continue to make him a forgotten piece of the heavyweight division.
He will continue to move down the rankings and will need to make another run, although he is still only 29 and has time.
For Volkov, the win is a big one as Struve is his third straight in the UFC and a big name on his record.
He will move up and begin to get some bigger names and possibly join N’Gannou as the fast rising prospects already getting title consideration.
The Sport Addiction 