When Jared Rosholt got the call to face Stefan Struve at UFC 193, he didn’t hesitate to take the bout. But, the challenges that come with facing an opponent as tall as Struve forced Rosholt’s camp into some creative situations.

At 7’0″, Struve (26-7 MMA, 10-5 UFC) presents problems that are very difficult to duplicate in training. Rosholt’s (13-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC) team has done what they can to prepare for the bout, which takes place Nov. 14 on the pay-per-view main card of the event from Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium.

“It was funny,” Rosholt told MMAjunkie Radio. “My manager had some random guy he knew through work come in. The guy is 6’9”. He just came in to stand in front of me so I could see him. All of a sudden we’re talking to this guy who was in his khakis coming off of work. Pretty soon he was standing in the cage and letting me throw punches at him just to get a feel for it. It was kind of weird.”

It hasn’t stopped at bringing in strangers and talking them into letting the heavyweight lob punches at his head.

Another method of unorthodox preparation? Stacking shoes.

“One of the black belt guys that I work with, he was making boxing shoes and taking all these sandals and cutting off the part that you slip your foot into and he was gluing them and stacking them up until they got to about six inches and sticking them in these boxing shoes,” Rosholt said. “Now he’s 6’11” and he’s moving around for me. We’re getting a little bit creative. We had a guy on stilts walking around and all kinds of stupid stuff.”

There were more standard methods employed during Rosholt’s training camp, including flying in a tall kickboxer who could help prepare for the long limbs and interesting angles of Struve’s attack.

“We flew in a guy from Pennsylvania who is a kickboxer and he’s 6’11”,” Rosholt said. “He was a really good look. He just flew back to Pennsylvania this week because I’m pretty much done with the hardest part of my camp. It was a good look, very valuable to have someone that size come in.”

For more on UFC 193, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.