Stefan Struve’s Manager: My Guess Is You’ll See Him Sooner Than Later

UFC heavyweight Stefan Struve gave his fans a scare when he was unfortunately forced out of his UFC 175 bout with Matt Mitrione after returning from a heart condition that seriously put his fighting future in danger.

Many were left wondering if the towering “Skyscraper” would ever be able to return to the Octagon; today, their questions have been answered. Struve’s manager Lex McMahon appeared on today’s edition of The MMA Hour to declare that Struve had a panic attack at UFC 175 and will suffer no lasting effects:

“He had essentially what boiled down to a panic attack. It manifested itself physically, he had a fainting episode backstage before his fight occurred. I don’t think he took full account of the emotions to step into the Octagon. I think he had some lingering questions about where his health was even though he’d been cleared by specialist.

All those things came together in a perfect storm and unfortunately it created a tremendous amount of anxiety, and it caused him to faint. … Stefan has already seen several doctors, the doctors have reiterated there is nothing physically wrong with him, it was more the psychological response which created the physical manifestation of him fainting.”

That sounds like a positive diagnosis for Struve, who wanted nothing more than to return to the Octagon and restart his assault on the UFC heavyweight division. It sounds like that’s going to be a possibility when he is cleared once again.

McMahon said that they’ll likely look to get him booked on a smaller card, as returning at a huge event like UFC 175 may have lent to Struve’s anxiety:

“We’ll work with the UFC maybe to map out an approach which doesn’t put so much pressure on him for his first bout back he was on one of biggest cards of the year for a featured bout.

I think people take for granted how incredibly, how much pressure is associated with that, from the media responsibilities, to realizing you’re being seen by millions of people; it was a lot for that young man.”

McMahon has a good point, because the culmination of all involved factors undoubtedly placed a huge burden on Struve, one that even his giant shoulders could not carry.

It’s understandable, and for now, it’s also an issue that seems surmountable. We don’t know when Struve will return yet, but McMahon thinks it will be sometime soon:

“My guess is you’ll see him sooner than later. Dana’s been super supportive of that and he’s kind of left it up to us to figure out what the timeline will be. We’ll have something for Stefan pretty soon.”

Here’s to hoping that’s true, because it’s hard not to root for the 26-year-old slugger who’s been through it all.