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Tuesday, Apr 14, 2015

SCL Champ Adam Stroup Says “It’s Just Really Hard Work” That’s Responsible For Post TUF 19 Run

Adam Stroup (photo via Factory X Muay Thai.com)

By Kelsey Mowatt

Adam Stroup may have come up short in his bid to enter the TUF 19 house, but since then, the middleweight has certainly done his part to retain his prospect status.

Stroup battled Dhiego Lima in the competition’s opening round, but loss by decision to the eventual finalist, and was eliminated from the show. More recently, however, Stroup has continued his rise up the middleweight ranks, by recording three more stoppage wins.

“I went to “The Ultimate Fighter” about a year and-a-half ago, two Octobers ago, and I lost that. I was completely taken back by that because I worked so hard to be there, and I got beat,” Stroup relayed on a recent episode of Full Contact Fighter Radio, while discussing the defeat and his recent run. “So when I got home, I told myself and my coach, and my team, that I’m going to work as hard as I possibly can, and that I want to finish three fights in a row. That I feel like it would put me back to where I was.”

“It’s just really hard work. I don’t think there’s any substitute for it,” furthered the Factory X Muay Thai fighter. “Another thing is that I never had any skills coming into this. I never boxed, I never wrestled. I never did jiu-jitsu, so I feel like every single day that I show up at the gym I get just a little bit better. I believe that I’m half as good as I can be right now. In two years I’ll be better. In six months I’ll be better….So, I’m just going to keep working and keep getting better.”

Not only has Stroup scored stoppages in his last three bouts, another thing that pops out when you look at his record, is that all three involved his use of knees. In July, 2014, Stroup stopped Jason Lee with knees and punches in the second round, and then a few months later, he used the technique to stop Lee once again. Most recently, at a Sparta Combat League event in December, Stroup stopped Jason Guthrie with knees in the opening frame.

“You know, it just happens,” Sparta Combat League’s middleweight champ said about the victories and his use of knees.  “I started training with Mark Montoya, he’s big time Muay Thai, loves the clinch, and I think a lot of people in the game don’t train the clinch enough. So when you get a little fatigued, and when you get a little tired, and you start bringing those knees up, guys don’t really know how to properly defend it.”

“My coach always told me, the knee is the strongest punch you’ll ever land,” added Stroup (8-1). “If you can catch a guy with a knee to the face, that might be the fight changer right there. So, we train a lot for the clinch and it’s weird, because when guys get hit they want to go to the fence, and they want to take me down. I work really, really hard on my takedown defense, and it just translates right into a nice knee…”

Stroup is scheduled to defend the SCL middleweight title on April 25th versus Frank Lester. The card will be hosted by the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Colorado.

 

posted by FCF Staff @ 8:00 am
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