Sat Oct 24, 2009 7:44 pm EDT
That was nifty. Stefan Struve, a 6-foot-11, 21-year-old from Holland, scored an easy win via triangle against highly-touted newcomer Chase Gormley at 4:04 of the first round to open UFC 104 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Each of Struve's fights have been memorable. He was the victim of the big punching Junior Dos Santos in his UFC debut, then beat Denis Stojnic in a blood bath at UFC 99. Because of his height, it's dangerous to hit the ground with him. Struve actually landed the submission from top control. He sat up on Gormley's stomach and pulled him over into the triangle.
"I got the opportunity. He gave gave it away. I had to take it," said Struve (18-3, 2-1 UFC, 14 submissions).
The fight was waged in front of roughly 2,000 fans. It's likely the legendary traffic will keep away much of the crowd until the free Spike portion of the card goes off at 6 p.m. PT. It's so empty some clown in the crowd could be heard yelling, "no one cares Rogan," as the UFC's color analyst Joe Rogan hit the cage for the postfight interview.
KINGSBURY WINS "NOT" FIGHT OF THE NIGHT
Good luck to Kyle Kingsbury and Razak Al-Hassan. They both may be headed toward the unemployment line after that disaster. The stand-up was ugly. There were a few takedowns but nothing was done by the guy with top control. The judges had to give the win to somebody so Kingsbury got the nod with a split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28). It's shocking to see how poor Al-Hassan's fundamentals are standing. He switched stances throughout the fight often throwing double punches, backfists and slaps. Give him credit though, he didn't have his arm dislocated like he did last December at UFC: Fight for the Troops when he forgot to tap against Steve Cantwell.
Cagewriter is an MMA blog edited by Steve Cofield. Email him, and follow him on Twitter.

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I hope that all MMA fans will wash their hands of the UFC and go elsewhere. They simply cannot rob a man of his dreams that he spent his life working for.
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Someone join with me, PLEASE!!!!!
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Something has got to be done Josepho asked if MMA (I would say UFC) is going the way of boxing. After tonight I would say that the Machida decision it looks more like it is going the way of PROFESSIONAL RASTLIN!!!!!
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