UFC 124 Preview: The Main Card

Stefan Struve (white trunks) vs. Paul Buentello: Dave Mandel | Sherdog.com

You always have to respect fighters who’ve had more bouts than birthdays. The Dutch youngster Struve has put together a decent UFC body of work since his brutal debut, where he was starched by Junior dos Santos in less than a minute. Since then, the six-foot-11-inch Struve has notched four wins, his only other loss coming to Roy Nelson. Scaling in the 240-pound range and just 22 years old, Struve is both freakishly tall for the weight class and physically undersized. He’s still filling out, and as such needs to rely on his submissions and long limbs to be effective.

McCorkle, meanwhile, is the physical opposite. After lobbying the UFC on message boards and elsewhere, the unbeaten, six-foot-seven vet of the Midwestern circuit got his chance against Mark Hunt at UFC 119, and he came up big. Scoring a kimura from the bottom, McCorkle did very well for an Octagon first-timer, especially stepping in against a veteran slugger in Hunt.

That said, I think Struve’s challenge with heavyweights will be the strength factor. Given McCorkle’s massive frame, it isn’t going to get any easier in this one. Struve’s best chance is to grab a sneaky submission or land something big on the feet. Either way, McCorkle may just be too strong to be deterred.

Look for McCorkle to pick his spot for a takedown, establish position, and proceed to deliver some effective ground-and-pound en route to a second-round stoppage. Size matters, and McCorkle will make it eminently apparent.