Issue 146
October 2016
Finally healthy and Back in the top 10, Rick Story’s target is to take out every fighter at 170lb.
Dialogue
Rick Story, UFC welterweight
Alias: The Horror
Age: 32
Team: Unattached
Record: 19-8
Rick Story is finally ready to challenge the best UFC welterweights again. He got close to the top five years ago, but a catalog of personal and physical problems put his career in a holding pattern. Now all that’s behind him, he’s fully fit for the first time since college, buoyed by his first three-fight win streak in more than half a decade and ready to give whoever he faces one hell of a fight.
Q. What’s clicked with you to see you go on this winning run at last inside the Octagon?
A. My career was pretty much going up and down after I had that six-fight win streak in the UFC, and I can only put that down to the pressure I was under in my personal life. I invested in a gym and I invested in a business partner, manager and coach all rolled up into one. I gave one person too much control and I felt like the world was on my shoulders attempting to make that endeavor succeed. It took some time to get over that situation, but now I can really focus on me and not have to worry about anything else. Right now I’m just in a much better headspace and really able to focus on myself.
Q. Were you trying to build a life for after fighting and was that detrimental to your career?
A. Yes, I was still learning how to fight. Right before I signed with the UFC I had only been fighting professionally for 10 months. I was still learning everything about fighting in general, the ins and outs, the different promotions and what to expect – let alone everything outside of it. And I was more focused on setting myself up and neglected my training and knowledge of the sport. I was setting myself up for a fall. And it’s not like I didn’t notice it was happening. I just had the mindset that if I just worked harder it would all work out. I was a loyal person and I kept telling myself it was for the greater good. But eventually I stepped away and realized it was actually a s**tty situation and I was getting taken advantage of.
Q. When did you start enjoying MMA again?
A. It was literally the day after the Kelvin Gastelum fight. Now I can say if I lost a fight, I would have known I lost it because of me, not because of any outside factors. It would have been on me. I no longer worry about making a paycheck to be able to pay the gym bills and have to then struggle to pay rent or have gas to get to the gym. Now it’s just completely different. It’s how it should have been from day one.
Q. Was it frustrating to sit on the bench for 18 months after beating Gunnar Nelson?
A. The whole welterweight division is shifting and I’ve not been able to do anything about it because I can’t go out and perform. But then at the same time, getting my neck fixed and the immediate results I got from it – I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. My quality of life is so much better. It’s like finding a diamond in the rough because that neck issue has been bothering me since after high school wrestling. So now I’m no longer worried about it and it feels like my abilities are fully capable again.
Q. Did you carry that neck injury for over a decade?
A. Yes. When I was wrestling in college as a senior, just before nationals I lost function in my right pectoral muscle and in my right tricep. And I didn’t realize it until after the season, and by then I had one chest muscle and one set of ribs (laughs). Eventually the function of the nerves came back and started firing the muscle again. Two years after that I started fighting and I continued to get stingers and I would know if I kept pushing it, I would probably lose some function of muscles, so I would have to tone back my training. It completely altered how I would approach any kind of wrestling situation. I had to change everything. But hopefully some of those roadblocks have been taken away now. (I can) be a little bit more aggressive.
Q. So you’re in the UFC top 10, but we’ve not seen you at 100%?
A. I’m not saying I wasn’t 100% fit or committed in previous fights, but there was that element of a stinger and I would be down to 30%. So I’m not going to say I was never 100%, but there were plenty of times in camp when I had a weakness in my right arm and I had to baby it and pull right back on training to ensure I didn’t get another stinger. It always threatened to force me out of a fight. Just to not have that thought hanging over me, making me hesitate – that’s huge for me.
Q. Who impresses you at 170lb and who do you want to fight?
A. Watching Stephen Thompson fight Rory (MacDonald) was pretty awesome. He’s stepping up and going for it. I respect that. Some guys are going in there and are in cruise mode. But he’s one of the ones who are really going for the finish and he’s driving for the title. It’s impressive. With regard to people in front of me, I don’t care who I fight. I’m ready for anybody that’s dropped in front of me. Whoever it is, I’ll prepare for them and we’ll fight. But it’s not my style to start talking trash or calling people out. My style is: line them up in front of me and let me take them out. That’s how I’ve approached my entire fighting career.
Q. Would would you think about an action fight with Matt Brown?
A. When I finished my last fight the UFC asked me who I’d like to face next and I said, ‘Matt Brown’. Don’t get me wrong, it would probably be a bloodbath, but that would be a fun fight for me. I told them that would be a fun fight.
Q. What do you think about GSP coming back?
A. It’s going to be a mistake or the best decision he’s ever made. He left in a great spot. But hey, if he wants to fight, he wants to fight. If he’s physically able to fight, maybe he has that itch that he needs to scratch. He’s probably set financially for the rest of his life, so who cares. Nobody can erase what he’s already done. On the other hand, the evolution of the sport has escalated pretty quickly. So if he hasn’t been on top of things then he’s going to have a rude awakening.
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