When Stefan Struve k.o'd stipe miocic.

[Big Tuppy Hole]

had to gouge his eyes out first in order to do it.

why do peeps always want to blind Stipe?!

He was on his way out before the eye gouge?

 

[Big Tuppy Hole]

People also don't seem to notice his leg buckle and that's when struve attacked.

Because he had been hit multiple times already.

 

[Gamer2k4]

Struve always looked like a baby head attached to a giant's body while Mighty Mouse always looked like the opposite.

 

[Big Tuppy Hole]

Prospect loss. A common occurrence when a new prospect — remember, Stipe had been less than a year in the UFC — gets rocketed into a main event against a guy with three times his experience.

It was before Hunt broke Struve's jaw and confidence, before the heart issues manifested themselves. He was on a tidy win streak and perhaps the best he's ever been. And it still took an eye poke and a slip to make Stipe's defense flounder enough that he couldn't recover from Struve's barrage, and result in a standing TKO.

Stripping this fight of all context and asterisks and pretending it proves that Stipe was never any good has always been a shit argument. But it is a charge that will never die as long as people prefer memes to reason.

This narrative that it was an eye poke and slip that cosy him the fight, isn't true. Struve was already landing big shots on a visibly discouraged and fading Stipe. Miocic slipped because he was unsteady on his feet.

 

[volcom5]

I swear people are idiots on this forum, Stipe was in his 9th fight to Struves 30th fight. It was a green fighter and a veteran. Fighters improve and Stripe reaching the status of champions reflects that, while Struve will just be a footnote and a hurdle.

 

[g*r*b]

This narrative that it was an eye poke and slip that cosy him the fight, isn't true. Struve was already landing big shots on a visibly discouraged and fading Stipe. Miocic slipped because he was unsteady on his feet.

I won't deny the tide was turning towards Struve before it. But that was the point of no return.

We see the slip differently, but I don't feel the need to thrash it out with you. My main point doesn't rely on the how of what went down, anyway. It's in the nature of where the fight occurs in their careers. Surely we've seen the dynamic of the prospect loss happen too many times to punish Stipe's legacy especially, just because his opponent's name later on becomes a punchline.

Furthermore, it's this loss that galvanizes Stipe into upping his game — the best thing that could have happened for his career, as he called it. And that points to what is most stupid about the "he lost to STRUVE lol he was never any good" mockeries. Because at their heart they rely on the assumption that all fighters are fixed quantities that never change. Like any attempt at pretending this crazy sport works like math, it's bullshit.

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

Prospect loss. A common occurrence when a new prospect — remember, Stipe had been less than a year in the UFC — gets rocketed into a main event against a guy with three times his experience.

It was before Hunt broke Struve's jaw and confidence, before the heart issues manifested themselves. He was on a tidy win streak and perhaps the best he's ever been. And it still took an eye poke and a slip to make Stipe's defense flounder enough that he couldn't recover from Struve's barrage, and result in a standing TKO.

Stripping this fight of all context and asterisks and pretending it proves that Stipe was never any good has always been a shit argument. But it is a charge that will never die as long as people prefer memes to reason.

i don't get how this is even evidence that he was "never good". he literally became the UFC champion with the most defenses AFTER Struve did that to him. he beat JDS, Ngannou, Werdum, Overeem all AFTER this happened. even if people think Struve was just better than him in this fight, it's pretty fucking obvious Stipe became MUCH better than Struve ever was.

 

[Intermission]

Stipe was never that good. That's how it works

Beat cormier

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

I remember during Stipe's run sherdog worshipped him as if he were the 2nd coming of Fedor, the GOAT, unstoppable etc

There were even people claiming he wasn't just the HW GOAT but he was very close to breaking into the Top 5 GOAT list with likes of Jones, GSP, Silva etc, after he beat Ngannou

Now that Jones beat him people are acting like none of that ever happened and that he was always a nobody nothing who never beat anybody lol

this sounds made up. Stipe has never been popular. not even when he became the first person from Cleveland to win them a championship in more than 50 yrs.

 

[gentel]

It was pretty crazy that he lost to Struve despite overall beating way more elite opponents than Struve could. Not sure why Stipe went with striking the whole time rather than wrestling

Also these shorts were way better than his new custom shorts

 

[Deleted member 110072]

Skipped the part where he got eye-poked right before the ko.

You watch the fight though and the eye poke wasnt really a turning point, Struve was clearly ontop before that and had already rocked Stipe more than once in the second round.

I tend to think part of the issue is that this was still "technical boxer" Stipe we saw early in his career were as I think during his run at the top he switched moreso to targetting opponents weaknesses, most commonly he started to rush down people like Arlovski, JDS and Reem.

I suspect Stipe of 2-3 years latter would have either looked to chase down Struve more or would have taken him down.

 

[Left Hook Lacy]

Struve was a great prospect.
- Got thrown to the wolfs too quickly, suffered so many hard KOs early
- Had health issues
- The 265 limit is idiotic. Who knows whether he otherwise would have bulked up, but with the weight limit the option to do it wasnt even there for him

 

[TJ Dillashank]

Stipe's gonna end up like Bisping with the amount of eye pokes he's taken

 

[Deleted member 110072]

I think it does kind of highlight why Stipe was just SO ineffective against Jones.

Even a prime Stipe was not really that amazing a technilcal boxer, he had reasonably solid fundamentals but not a great jab and to threaten people he either needed to chase them down so they were squared up OR he needed to counter wreckless aggression.

Stipe was never really a guy were he could engage in a slow technical fight and then BOOM time some great fight ending strike, that meant an old slow Stipe who couldnt chase Jon down effectively didnt have much to fall back on, even in his prime a slow technical kickboing match was not his forte and espeically not when he'd lost what handspeed he had.

 

[Tweak896]

Struve was a great prospect.
- Got thrown to the wolfs too quickly, suffered so many hard KOs early
- Had health issues
- The 265 limit is idiotic. Who knows whether he otherwise would have bulked up, but with the weight limit the option to do it wasnt even there for him

If he developed more of a long range striking game and stayed healthy he could've been a monster. Wish we had more taller HWs that can really use their size. If I remember right, Struve was kind of small for HW and had to bulk to fill in even with the 265 limit. UFC should uncap that limit, they choose who they sign and they already have fat 240lbers.

 

[DiazSlap]

Incidentally, the last time Stipe faced someone in their 20s.

100% accurate

 

[dipstickjimmy]

I think Jon only pulls dirty stuff when he’s not doing well.

Jon's eye poking is more then just poking the eye to blind or hurt his opponent. If you are the fighter who needs to close distance (literally all of Jon's opponents) the threat of his fingers in your face changes how you close distance. It drives me crazy that refs don't get that Jon is changing the fight by constantly having fingers near his opponents face where it might "Accidentally" cause an eye poke. So many refs give warning after warning.

 

[orca]

still stipes fights are way harder than japanese pro wrestlers in japan

 

[dipstickjimmy]

This is usually a crap argument, but this is a case where I think it actually sorta works. Stipe isn't amazing at anything. He looked beatable in most of his fights. He's good, but I don't agree with him being in GOAT status.

He is the best HW the UFC has ever had based on his Actual in cage results. Name a HW champion in the UFC that was better. Not would win in a theoretical head to head match up but actually better in the cage.

Was Fedor better? Sure you can go with that but he never fought in the UFC under the same rules and conditions. Closest he ever came to the UFC was StrikeForce. At 34 Fedor fought in a cage in North America and lost to Werdum, Bigfoot & Dan Henderson consecutively.

At 34 Stipe beat Werdum by KO to win the belt and then defended against Reem & JDS winning by KO.

 

[Deleted member 110072]

He is the best HW the UFC has ever had based on his Actual in cage results. Name a HW champion in the UFC that was better. Not would win in a theoretical head to head match up but actually better in the cage.

Was Fedor better? Sure you can go with that but he never fought in the UFC under the same rules and conditions. Closest he ever came to the UFC was StrikeForce. At 34 Fedor fought in a cage in North America and lost to Werdum, Bigfoot & Dan Henderson consecutively.

At 34 Stipe beat Werdum by KO to win the belt and then defended against Reem & JDS winning by KO.

Stipe started MMA older and was far less active though.

I would tend to reverse things and say its actually the Pride environment which was more likely to test different aspects. you had to deal with soccer kicks/knees/stomps on the ground and you couldnt get away with stalling nearly so much.