Rick “The Horror” Story must’ve angered someone in the UFC front office—president Dana White, matchmaker extraordinaire Joe Silva or another kingpin with equal influence.
Check out the names on his six-fight rampage through the welterweight ranks and you’ll find it doesn’t included too many cream puffs.
Story got two warm-up fights after dropping a decision in Germany to John “The Hitman” Hathaway at UFC 99. Since those two bouts, however, it’s been an array of names he probably wasn’t supposed to beat—”Slick” Nick Osipczak was a hot commodity at the time, after a strong showing on The Ultimate Fighter’s ninth season and a domination of Matt Riddle; Dustin “McLovin'” Hazelett had just been knocked senseless by Paul “Semtex” Dailey, but was still thought to be a future contender; Johny Hendricks was undefeated; and Thiago “Pitbull” Alves was fresh off his eye-popping performance against John “Doomsday” Howard.
In each of those pairings, it would’ve been tough to call the Horror the favorite.
Well, guess what?
With Nate “The Great” Marquardt dropping down to 170 pounds for his scrap with Story, it’s tough to say the pattern has changed. Marquardt—as legitimate a contender to Anderson “The Spider” Silva’s middleweight throne as there was—is going to be a handful at the lighter weight unless the cut has sapped him of his usual pep. Given the Great’s reputation and history, that proposition is highly dubious.
Word is finally leaking out about the Horror so I won’t go so far as to call him the underdog and, if I’ve got this right, Vegas even likes the him a shred more than his opponent. Nevertheless, consider Nate Marquardt yet another serving in a steady diet of leaps up the degree of difficulty scale.
Which seems to be just the way Rick Story likes it.