Stefan Struve stands tall in defeating Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Stefan Struve, right, defeated Minotauro Nogueira by unanimous decision Saturday at UFC 190.
Stefan Struve’s Ultimate Fighting Championship career appeared in peril when heart trouble threatened his fighting future.
In UFC 190 undercard action Saturday night in Rio de Janeiro, Struve, 27, severely dimmed the future of another UFC heavyweight, former champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
Struve, the tallest fighter in the UFC at 6-foot-11, avoided the 39-year-old Nogueira’s submission attempts and relied on his massive reach advantage to win a unanimous decision, 30-27, on all three scorecards.
The bout preceded the night’s main event between bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey (11-0) and unbeaten contender Bethe Correia (9-0).
Venice’s Rousey has finished all but one of her fights in one round and is coming off a 14-second successful title defense over Cat Zingano in February that lasted only 14 seconds at Staples Center.
Rousey expressed outrage when Correia said she hoped the champion wouldn’t commit suicide if she lost, talk Rousey thought went below the belt considering her father had committed suicide.
Saturday’s pay-per-view card was extended to seven fights because it included two bouts concluding “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil.”
In the bantamweight finale, Reginaldo Vieira survived a broken nose and extensive bleeding in the third round to claim a victory by decision over countryman Dileno Lopes, who suffered cuts at both eyes himself.
Nogueira worked to submit Struve in the second round, but the lanky 238-pounder squirted loose and capitalized on the older fighter’s fatigue as the action turned to stand-up.
Struve subjected Nogueira to big rights and hurtful jabs en route to the decision.
Later Saturday, also after press time, Nogueira’s brother, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, had a rematch from 2005 with former UFC light-heavyweight champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
Brazil’s Claudia Gadelha, the No. 1 contender in the women’s strawweight division, showed the wide divide that exists between her and No. 15 Jessica Aguilar by repeatedly landing punches and left kicks to the head in the first round, leaving Aguilar’s nose bloodied.
The punishment continued until judges awarded
Gadelha (13-1) a victory by unanimous decision without one lost round.
She then called out champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk and UFC President Dana White expressed enthusiasm for the coming showdown on his Twitter account.
The thundering punching power of former heavyweight title fighter Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva (19-7) propelled him to a second-round stoppage of Australia’s Soa Palelei 41 seconds in.
After taking some punishment with his back on the canvas in the first round, Silva dropped Palelei by sending a hard right uppercut, then a hard right knee to the jaw, finishing him with lefts.
The UFC also announced that veteran heavyweights Andrei Arlovski and Frank Mir will fight in the co-main event of UFC 191, headlined by the flyweight championship between Demetrious Johnson and John Dodson on Sept. 5 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
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