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Stefan Struve Hangs Up His Gloves

Heavyweight legend cites health concerns as he steps away from the sport

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The legendary Stefan Struve – the 7-foot-tall, 265lb Dutchman known as “The Skyscraper” who once knocked out current UFC heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic – has announced that he plans to step away from mixed martial arts for good this week, citing ongoing health concerns.

“I’ve had an inner ear issue that I’ve been battling since May last year. I caught a viral infection that has damaged my vestibular system and the hearing nerve in my right ear,” Struve posted to his Facebook page. “I was doing good although still experiencing some vertigo and other minor issues but my idea was, especially with the doctors telling me the issues would go away after a while, to just keep going and ignore it until it really was gone completely. Unfortunately during the fight [against Tai Tuivasa at UFC 254 in October] some of the issues came back after getting hit flush on the right ear, it was a punch that should not be an issue normally.”

Following the fight against Tuivasa, doctors re-examined Struve’s ear and concluded that the damage done to his vestibular system was likely going to be permanent.

“At this juncture, I realize that it’s time to hang up the gloves for good, and put my health and family first,” Struve said. “ I’ve had a long career and have battled through multiple injuries and health conditions, including a broken jaw and the heart condition.  Pushing forward and training hard and fighting without listening to my body would be asking for real trouble in my opinion. I am truly appreciative of the career and treatment that I’ve had with the UFC.”

As mentioned, this is not the first health issue Struve’s faced during his career – back in 2013, the Dutchman was diagnosed with a leaking aortic valve and an enlarged heart, but he was able to overcome those obstacles and return to the octagon to face Alistair Overeem in 2014.

After his diagnosis, however, the heavyweight was never quite able to put on the kinds of performances many had become accustomed to during his previous years in the cage. Despite a submission win over Marcos Rogerio de Lima in 2019, Struve lost back-to-back fights against Ben Rothwell and Tai Tuivasa in December 2019 and October 2020, respectively, and before that saw a three-loss streak against Alexander Volkov, Andrei Arlovski, and Marcin Tybura between 2017 and 2018.

Despite the lackluster ending, his record in the past has been impressive, going 29-13 in a career that extends back to 2005, when he made his MMA debut with a victory over John de Wilde at Gentlemen’s Fight Night in the Netherlands. Since then, he has gone  toe-to-toe with several legends of the sport, including Mark Hunt, Alistair Overeem, Stipe Miocic, Junior Dos Santos, and a host of others. 

After his long career, Struve says now it’s time to finally focus on himself and his family.

“I have to put my health first now, especially now that I’m a father to my 5 month old son Tobi, with whom his mom and I have been able to spend all the time in the world recently, which I’m very thankful for,” the fighter wrote on Facebook. “I want to thank all my coaches, my manager, training partners and everybody else who has been part of my career throughout these years. To all the fightfans, even though sometimes I had to dig really deep, I had a lot of fun over the years, it was an honor to fight for you.”

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