Stefan Struve says pump the brakes on report of him fighting Francis Ngannou in Sweden

A report from Sweden surfaced today saying a fight between Stefan Struve and Francis Ngannou was in the works for the UFC’s return to Stockholm in May.

But Struve pumped the brakes on that report today, tweeting that he’s still recovering from a recent shoulder surgery, and that he would not be fighting on the card in late spring.

The UFC recently announced its return to Stockholm for what is likely to be UFC Fight Night 109. The event takes place May 28 at Ericsson Globe. Broadcast plans have not been announced, but the card will be headlined by a light heavyweight fight between Sweden’s Alexander Gustafsson and Brazil’s Glover Teixeira, both former title challengers.

Swedish news outlet MMA NYTT today reported a fight between Ngannou (10-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) and Struve (28-8 MMA, 12-6 UFC) is being targeted for the event, though UFC officials obviously have not announced it, and now Struve has indicated it won’t be happening then.

Ngannou currently is the No. 11-ranked fighter in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA heavyweight rankings; Struve is an honorable mention selection.

After back-to-back knockout losses to Mark Hunt and Alistair Overeem – with a lengthy layoff in between due to a broken jaw and a heart condition – Struve has won three of his past four fights. He took a unanimous decision from Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 190, but then dropped a decision to Jared Rosholt at UFC 193.

Since then, though, he has back-to-back stoppage wins. At UFC Fight Night 87 in the Netherlands, he knocked out Antonio Silva with massive elbows just 16 seconds into their fight to earn a $50,000 performance bonus. He followed that up this past October with a second-round D’Arce choke submission of Daniel Omielanczuk at UFC 204 in England.

Struve was set to headline UFC Fight Night 105 in February in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, but had to pull out of the fight against Junior Dos Santos in January with a shoulder injury. If he’s booked for hte fight with Ngannou in May, it would appear he’ll have had sufficient enough time to recover from the shoulder injury and subsequent surgery.

Ngannou, from France, has been on a tear since coming to the UFC in 2015. He started his pro career 5-1 with five stoppages, then has proceeded to tear through his UFC opponents with relative ease.

Ngannou, who currently is in Las Vegas as a guest fighter at this week’s UFC 209, won his promotional debut with a knockout of Luis Henrique at UFC on FOX 17. Then he stopped Curtis Blaydes and Bojan Milajlovic by TKO. In December at UFC Fight Night 102, he picked up a performance bonus for a slick first-round kimura against Anthony Hamilton. And at UFC on FOX 23 in Denver in January, he stopped former heavyweight champ Andrei Arlovski with a first-round TKO, which also earned him an extra $50,000 bonus check.

The current UFC Fight Night in Stockholm card includes:

• Alexander Gustafsson vs. Glover Teixeira
• Chris Camozzi vs. Magnus Cedenblad
• Christian Colombo vs. Damian Grabowski
• Jack Hermansson vs. Alex Nicholson

For more on UFC Fight Night in Stockholm, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.