Rick Story Returns with Smothering Win at UFC Fight Night 88
UFC Fight Night 88 was a card designed to be fun for the fans, but make no mistake. It was serious business for the fighters, and Rick Story and Tarec Saffiedine in particular had no room to mess around.
At one point, both of them were the next big thing in the welterweight division.
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In 2011, Story was riding an impressive six-fight winning streak that included victories over former contender Thiago Alves and future champion Johny Hendricks. When he accepted a fight against Charlie Brenneman on 24 hours' notice, however, his career came off the tracks, as he lost soundly to the scrappy wrestler before coming out on the bad end of a questionable split decision opposite Martin Kampmann.
He has managed to stick around since then, but has struggled to consistently break off wins, even against manageable competition.
Saffiedine, however, has struggled even more than Story. After posting a big upset win over UFC alum Nate Marquardt to capture the Strikeforce welterweight title, he was forced to take a year off due to injuries. Then another nine months. Then another year on top of that. The result has been just three fights since the closure of Strikeforce, and while he was once one of the most interesting fighters in the sport's deepest division, he has been largely forgotten about simply due to his inactivity.
That made their showdown at Fight Night 88 a critical one for both men, who were desperately seeking any form of momentum. After a long, ugly slog, Story was the man to come out on top.
The fight was precisely what Story needed it to be to take home the win. Saffiedine owned a massive advantage at range, with a smooth jab and quick, precise kicking game. Story, quite simply, had no hope of contesting him at range.
The solution to that? Never be at range.
For all 15 minutes, Story slung combinations in close, clinched Saffiedine and held him to the cage for as long as he possibly could. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't impressive. It wasn't especially entertaining...but it was effective. While Saffiedine staggered him with leg kicks, clocked him with head kicks and tagged him with punches, the sheer amount of time spent with his back to the cage proved to be the difference, with the judges scoring the fight 30-27, 29-28, 29-28 in Story's favor.
It's a rough break for the Belgian striker, who was last seen in January out-pointing Jake Ellenberger. While Saffiedine's undeniably talented, the last two years of his career have been catastrophically bad, and it may take an impossibly long time for him to remedy that.
Story, on the other hand, is an interesting commodity for the first time in years. Now riding a three-fight winning streak that also includes a win over Gunnar Nelson, he has a strong claim to a fight with a top-10 opponent. It would not be shocking for him to face one of the fighters competing at the top of Fight Night 89, particularly Donald Cerrone or Stephen Thompson and, if he can defeat either of them, things could get quite interesting at 170 pounds.
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