All about fives for UFC Live headliner Struve

It’s all about fives for Stefan Struve this Saturday.

In the main event of Saturday’s UFC Live event in Nottingham, England — which is the fifth show on FUEL TV since the organization signed a TV deal with FOX — Struve (24 wins, five losses) takes on unbeaten Stipe Miocic (9-0) in a matchup of heavyweights looking to move into title contention.

Watch UFC Live: Struve vs. Miocic on all Sportsnet regional channels Saturday at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT. Also, watch the preliminary fights on sportsnet.ca starting at 1:45 p.m. ET / 10:45 a.m. PT.

Apart from Miocic’s flawless record, there are many numbers — fives, to be precise — in Struve’s favour.

Struve, who will be 25 in February, is roughly five years younger than Miocic, who just turned 30 last month. He has a UFC-best 84.5-inch reach — tied with Jon Jones — which is about five inches more than his opponent.

It’s his fifth year in the UFC — he signed with the organization in 2008 — and on Saturday he’ll be aiming for his fifth fight bonus after three Submission of the Night honours and one top knockout.

But of all the fives, the most significant one is the number of rounds scheduled for his bout Saturday. Since it is his first time headlining the card, it is set to be a five-round fight.

The emphasis is on “scheduled.”

“Five-round fight? It’s not a five-round fight. This isn’t going five. It is a one- or two-round fight, depending on when I finish him,” Struve said. “I am not worried about going five rounds. If it happens, I hit pads for an hour at a time and every Thursday at my gym it is pretty much fight night where we do 15 times five-minute rounds.

“I’ve changed nothing in my training. If it goes longer, okay, but I think this is a quick fight.”

Chances are he’ll be right. Only once in Struve’s career has he gone a full three rounds, when he defeated Paul Buentello by majority decision at UFC 107 in December 2009.

Saturday will be the Dutchman’s second trip to England since his Octagon debut at UFC 95, when he was knocked out by now-heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos. He has gone 8-2 since, including his current three-fight win streak.

He believes a fourth straight will bring about another five.

“A win here puts me in the top five in the world,” Struve said. “There’s a lot of hype on (Miocic) and he’s also coming off a big win. I’m only 24 but this is my twelfth fight in the UFC. I am going to do my business on Saturday night. I’ve been in the UFC for five years and I am really putting it together now as a mixed martial artist. I think this fight is a great showcase of what I can now do as a fighter.”

While a win against the Croatian American Miocic, who too is on a three-fight win streak in the UFC, won’t guarantee Struve a title shot anytime soon, it will certainly bring him closer.

Which would also give him an opportunity for another five-round fight.

NOTES: While Struve is currently listed as 6-foot-11½, the 24-year-old has apparently not stopped growing. FUEL TV correspondent Gareth A. Davies said during Friday’s live weigh-in show that Struve told him he is now an even seven feet tall. That would give him a full eight-inch height advantage on Miocic, and the man very appropriately nicknamed Skyscraper indeed seemed to tower over his opponent during their staredown Friday. He also weighed in at 251 pounds, compared to Miocic’s 239. The size difference could play a big role for the kickboxer and Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt … It will also be Miocic’s first five-round fight and like Struve, he has only gone the distance once in his career, winning a unanimous decision over Joey Beltran in his UFC debut last October. He has one Knockout of the Night award, a 43-second stoppage of Phil De Fries in February. A former NCAA Division 1 wrestler, Miocic could have the edge in the athletic department; he was also a baseball player and Golden Gloves champion boxer.