Stefan Struve (-155) vs. Sean McCorkle (+135)

Stefan “Skyscraper” Struve (20-4 MMA, 4-2 UFC) is the tallest fighter in the UFC at 6’11.  Struve has a kickboxing background with 4 professional wins in that sport.  The 22 year old Dutchman does not have a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu belt per say, but is very dangerous on the ground.  He has won 14 times via submission, mostly triangle (7) and rear naked (5) chokes.  

Struve has victories over Paul Buentello, Christian Morecraft, Chase Gormley and Denis Stojnic.  His only two losses in the last 3 years are knockouts to Junior dos Santos and Roy Nelson.

Sean “Big Sexy” McCorkle (10-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) is a mixed martial artist fighting out of Indianapolis Indiana.  McCorkle has been attempting to set the record for trash talk via twitter going into this fight.  Some of his better lines on his opponent Struve:

Stefan Struve was once arrested for impersonating a cocksucker. There’s no way a dirty communist like Struve beats an American patriot like me.  Freedom always wins Struve. And these colors don’t run! If I were homophobic, I would be terrified of Stefan Struve. Stefan Struve is an Al-Qaeda sympathizer.

And more than a few others that I don’t feel comfortable putting up on here.  If you want to read them yourself, here is his twitter page.

McCorkle has won 7 times via TKO or submission due to strikes.  From what I have been able to find, all of his previous opponents weren’t exactly quality fighters.  In his lone UFC win, he submitted formerly relevant MMA and K1 fighter Mark Hunt.  

I have a hard time playing this fight out.  Struve is definitely the more experienced fighter and has fought the better competition, but his chin concerns me.  He was dropped hard in under a minute by both Junior dos Santos and Roy Nelson.  Against Christian Morecraft he had ground and pound poured on for nearly the whole 1st round.  I could definitely see a TKO by McCorkle here, but it is to hard to judge his power based on the level of guys he has fought.  There is no way McCorkle has fought the caliber of ground opponent that Struve is.  I expect a takedown and maybe some modest ground and pound out of McCorkle, but ultimately Struve hit’s a rear naked choke in the second after “big sexy” is tired out.  Definitely not confident enough to make a play here.  Stefan Struve via submission, round 2.