Hans Stringer prepares himself for a tough test against Ilir Latifi on Saturday, July 18 in Glasgow, but talks about a much bigger fight going on in his native country of The Netherlands to clean up the sport of MMA.
Stringer (22-6-3) opened up about mixed martial arts in The Netherlands, a sport where the cage is banned, and has a damaging stigma attached to it.
“It’s not specifically MMA, MMA has always been like the smaller child of kickboxing, of course Holland being one of the best countries in the world.
“Just in general the fighting sport in Holland, like you said, that stigma, it’s really hard to organise events, the government is really difficult in this matter, but there are already some good signs.
However, Stringer admitted that change has started to appear, and activists are working hard to help remove the sport’s unfair stigma: “In Holland, if you say that you’re a fighter, people think you’re a criminal, it sounds really bad, and more or less it’s like that.
“That’s why normal sponsors don’t want to sponsor the events, so you get sponsors like the clubs, and in the end I think it needs to clean itself up.
“Recently some people talked to the Mayor of Amsterdam, talking about new events, bigger events, I think there is hope, but a lot has to grow.”
The 28-year-old also spoke about a growing movement in Holland from kickboxing to MMA, which should help the country to produce more high level talent in the future.
“A lot of fighters went to kickboxing because it was the biggest, but the land scape changed, now, kickboxing is smaller, MMA of course is really big epically in the world, so I think in the next five, ten years, more fighters from Holland are going to be there.”
After a ‘sour end’ to his last loss against Fabio Maldonado, Stringer feels his technical striking will give him the advantage against Latifi at the SSE Hydro on Saturday night.
“I think he is a strong guy, physically strong guy, I think he hits hard probably, but everybody hits hard at Light-Heavyweight.
“He’s just wild, it’s like I think I have a way bigger advantage in the technical stand-up and the only thing that could happen to me if he hits me with one punch, that’s it, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Hans Stringer also spoke about being on the first ever UFC Scotland show, reflecting on his last fight with Maldonado, and cleaning up MMA in The Netherlands.
