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With eight fights announced or close to being over the signature line for UFC Liverpool, that potentially leaves six available fight contracts for three fights if the UFC stick to their rough estimate of eleven fights per fight card.

FIGHT CARD (in no particular order):

Welterweight bout: Neil Magny vs. Gunnar Nelson

Middleweight Bout: Dan Kelly vs. Tom Breese

Middleweight Bout: Elias Theodorou vs. Trevor Smith

Women’s Bantamweight bout: Lina Länsberg vs. Gina Mazany

Middleweight bout: Darren Stewart vs. Eric Spicely

Featherweight bout: Makwan Amirkhani vs. Jason Knight

Featherweight bout: Arnold Allen vs. Mads Burnell

Welterweight bout: Brad Scott vs. Salim Touahir

One can only anticipate the inclusion of Paddy Pimblett’s Next Generation teammate, Molly McCann on the card. Molly has officially requested her inclusion on the card. Next Generation have made the Echo Arena their fortress under the Cage Warriors banner, thanks to the support of their fans, who revel and verbally engage themselves into their Scouse Lionshearts fights. A theme which Cage Warriors have acknowledged and ran with, now picked up by the UFC.

If the anticipated inclusion of Molly is correct, that will leave four slots for two fights with eight weeks remaining. Upon observation, i don’t see a Heavyweight tilt scheduled for UFC Fight Night: Liverpool.

With vacancy comes opportunity, and with his lengthy arms, ‘the Skyscraper’ makes a reach for that opportunity.

Speaking with James Lynch of @LynchonSports for Terphouse, the Skyscraper Stefan Struve gives a nostalgic response when asked what’s on the horizon in regards to his next fight selection.

“I’m ready to get back in there in 2-3 months. I’m still in shape. I’m feeling good”, Struve proclaimed when evaluating his health. Struve would continue, “Yeah, we’re talking to the UFC (himself & management representation) looking at some dates; I know there is some dates coming up in Europe. I know there is, erm a card in Liverpool; May 27th. Liverpool is where I earned my UFC contract, when I was 20 years old, I won the Cage Gladiators Heavyweight title by beating three UFC vets, and at that point, UFC was like, ‘we need to sign this guy’, erm so Liverpool’s my old stomping ground, so I definitely would like to fight there, and we are looking at the option of maybe making that happen, if I can make it healthy; if it’s a smart thing to do, but I’d definitely love to fight there.”

Sometimes in fighting, we witness different versions or spread out successful runs from fighters. Reasons may never be fully explained or understood as to why some fighters go through these peaks & dips in widespread form, but it happens. Dan Henderson, Alistair Overeem and Vitor Belfort cases in point.

So far, we’ve witnessed two successful versions of Stefan Struve.

Version 1.0 Stefan Struve: An agile teenager with slick transitions and a deadly closed guard|spider guard. Utilising those long limbs to python effect. Semmy Schilt was a perfect example of long limbs shutting down a fight from closed guard, ankles crossed. Stefan Struve was a prefect example of long limbs finishing a fight to devastating effect. ITV4’s Cage Gladiators would showcase a confident, exuberant young Struve back in 2008 finishing opponents with finesse and style.

Version 2.0 Stefan Struve: UFC contract in hand and straight to the UFC battlefield. A battlefield where Struve shed is flamboyant style, and replaced it with the steel heart and shell of an Ancestry Knight defending his honour and record. Struve would make miraculous come-from-behind victories a reality early in his UFC career. Struve 2.0 also is the only man to defeat current UFC Heavyweight Champion: Stipe Miocic via strikes. Struve version 2.0 would finally sucumb to a heart defect and other potential underline issues.

Version 3.0 Stefan Struve yet to come? In his interview with James Lynch, Struve referred to himself as carrying a current back injury, that requires the aid of CBD for pain relief. Back injuries can be very unpredictable and incapacitating, and that could leave Struve with an element of blindness into his future. Let that not take away from hope as Stefan Struve fans; hope is a wonderful thing that can create accomplishments. Can Struve intsall that hope inside of himself? Struve knows his last fight wasn’t to his full potential. A platform is needed once that hope is lit and burning; a platform is what Struve potentially has in UFC Liverpool. Factual results will remain a waiting game, that waiting game may only be eight weeks long.

Stefan Struve’s full length video interview with James Lynch for Terphouse.

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