It was been a crazy month for rising welterweight contender Rick Story.
At UFC 130, Story competed in the biggest fight of his career against former title challenger Thiago Alves.
Rick went into the fight as an underdog and shocked the world by defeating Thiago by unanimous decision.
The victory gained Story considerable momentum, many seeing him as being no more than two fights away from a title shot.
Shortly after his win over Alves, an interesting opportunity presented itself to Story.
Nate Marquardt was scheduled to face Anthony Johnson at UFC on Versus 4, but Johnson forced off the card due to injury and Story was offered his spot.
Rick entered himself into a high risk, high reward situation by accepting the fight. If he beat Marquardt, he would be no more than one win away from a title shot at the most. However, if he were to lose it would destroy much of the momentum he earned by defeating Alves.
Taking any fight on only a month’s notice is risky, especially if you’ve just fought against a top contender and Marquardt is not an opponent you want to be under prepared.
However, in another crazy turn of events, Nate was not cleared to fight at UFC on Versus 4 and was pulled from the event a day before it set to happen
This left Story without an opponent on a fight card he wasn’t supposed to be on in the first place. The spot was filled by Charlie Brenneman.
This last minute change put a lot of pressure on Rick. He went from being the underdog against a well known fighter, to expected to win against a relatively unknown fighter.
Unfortunately for Story, Brenneman was able to capitalize on this huge opportunity and defeat Rick by unanimous decision.
After the fight, Story had little to say about his performance.
“Coming into this fight I was training for a kickboxer… I didn’t train much wrestling, or any wrestling.”
This seems like a bit of a naive statement by Rick. Marquardt is a very well rounded fighter, with very good wrestling, and Story should have been preparing everything to get ready for him.
So, how much momentum has Rick Story lost by losing to the relatively unknown Charlie Brenneman?
A lot.
The welterweight division is stacked with elite contenders and a lot of fighters on the rise as well.
There’s quite a few guys vying for shots at top contenders and this loss puts Story at the back of that line. It’s a sad thing, but in a division this competitive the old adage “You’re only as good as your last fight” rings true, to a certain extent.
Whatever ground Story gained by defeating Alves has been almost completely negated by his loss to Brenneman. He is going to need one or two more wins to get back “in the mix” as far as title contention goes.
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