Stefan Struve celebrated his 25th birthday on Friday, one day before what was supposed to be his biggest win for his young UFC Heavyweight career. And he knew his matchup with Mark Hunt was going to be a big one, because a win would put him one step closer to a championship fight. In fact, Struve even said this prior to his co-main event match on UFC on FUEL TV 8 in Japan:
“It’s going to be another step to the belt, in my opinion,” Struve said in explaining the benefits of topping Hunt this weekend. “With five wins in a row, I think I have a good bid for being one of the top contenders in the division. Perhaps I’ll earn a title shot at the end of the year.”
That would have been awesome, considering his young age and unique size at 7-feet tall, because the Heavyweight division could certainly use some new blood and personality. That would have been awesome. Would have.
Unfortunately, Struve’s grand scheme hit a minor snag in the form of a left hook from Hunt that looked like this…
As you can see in the amazing banner image, that powerful punch rightfully left Struve stunned enough that referee Herb Dean called the fight in the third round. But even while Hunt’s punch looked painful enough live, Struve Tweeted the X-ray of his head after the fight to show off his brand new broken jaw.
To his credit, Struve was visibly upset that Dean called the fight, and he also Tweeted that he wanted to keep going.
Thanks for the support everybody, I wanted Herb to take the tooth out of my cheek and continue but then it turned out my jaw was broken..
— Stefan Struve (@StefanStruve) March 3, 2013
Ouch, bro. Fortunately, even in the face of a loss that derailed his big plans for 2013, Struve has one very NSFW fan that is willing to cheer him up* and numb the pain of that gigantic broken jaw.
* Seriously. NSFW. Twitter is full of perverts.
(Banner via)
