UFC: Stefan Struve gets up from two low blows then gets TKO’d by Ben Rothwell
- ‘Skyscraper’ twice left rolling around the Octagon in agony after illegal kicks by Rothwell
- Frustrated Dutchman twice continues but gets finished with three seconds left in round two
It must be tough enough getting up from one low blow to continue a fight. Try two kicks to the nether region.
That’s what Stefan Struve did in his heavyweight fight with Ben Rothwell at UFC on ESPN 7 in Washington. The American eventually got the TKO against a clearly weakened “Skyscraper”, with three seconds of the second round left.
“I’ll continue to not be happy, I’ve been doing this for 20 years, mixed martial arts is about respect,” Rothwell said in the Octagon after the fight.
“I’m not happy about what happened. He took two very hard shots. He’s a man for standing up and competing to fight me, he could have taken the easy way out, he didn’t. He stepped up. Give it up for him please.”
The two low shots appeared to be accidental, perhaps attributable to the big height discrepancy between the 1.93 metres-tall Rothwell and the 2.13m Struve.
Dutchman Struve was left rolling around the Octagon mat in agony after the first low blow in the first round. He took the full five minutes of allotted recovery time, with referee Dan Miragliotta opting not to dock Rothwell a point.
Every time Struve stood up the Capital One Arena crowd would cheer, then they would boo again when he slumped back to the mat – it was like something out of a professional wrestling match.
Struve opted to continue but then got caught with another low blow in the second round. He fell to the mat in similar fashion with the crowd in disbelief.
This time Rothwell was docked a point by Miragliotta, who, after covering his mic, suggested to Struve he should continue because he was ahead on the cards with 90 seconds of the second round left.
Struve this time only took three and a half minutes to recover, before the fight resumed. But Rothwell came out firing with some big shots.
Rothwell then checked a calf kick by Struve, who appeared to now be even more limited. Rothwell swarmed in and dropped him against the cage with Miragliotta stepping in at 4:57 of the second round. Struve was evidently frustrated after the stoppage, shaking his head.
“They took a point away from me, I’m just gonna act like a got a point taken away from me from now on because you see I had to step it up and give the crowd a show,” Rothwell added.
