UFC 130 Fight Card: What Rick Story Must Do To Beat Thiago Alves

They don't call Rick Story "The Horror" merely because of how it sounds when Bruce Buffer announces his name.

They call him that because he represents the image of the type of fighter that most dudes want to duck; he's a guy who can stand and bang or submit you, and he'll throw everything he has at you in order to get a win, but you can rest assured that he won't punk out.

That's why he's The Horror—he's as intimidating as that kid from ABC's The Middle at first glance, but when the cage door closes, he's coming in there to stomp a mud hole in your ass and walk it dry, and he doesn't stop unless he knows he's got you ready to be served on a silver platter.

Hey, it did help him snap the streak of Johny Hendricks, who is/was seen as the guy to watch at 170 in 2011, and Story did call out Thiago Alves—hence his bout with Pitbull at UFC 130.

So the only question left to answer is: How can Story make it so that people finally recognize he's as legit as Jon Fitch or BJ Penn at welterweight?

How should Story approach Alves at UFC 130?

That's my cue to enter...

Use the Cage To Get Around

Cage control: It can be your BFF or your biggest PITA.

Alves will likely want the fight in the middle of the cage where he can employ his heavy artillery, and Story may benefit from striking if Alves is against the cage more than if he's in the middle of the cage.

My suggestion: Make sure that the strength is up to par so that he can work to press the action against the cage and wear him out there.

Alves can go three rounds when he needs to, but if one can get him to put the ripping and the tearing on his own gas tank, they're one step closer to handing themselves a "W" against Alves.

For Story to get his edge over Alves, he'll need to accommodate Alves' back properly by pressing it against the cage where he will likely have nowhere to run if a storm of punches should follow a well-timed uppercut from Story.

Turn Up the Tempo (but Not Too Early)

Remember the wrestling game that Johny Hendricks was supposed to implement on Story?

That never got around to happening too much (you can watch the fight here to see how it did turn out).

Hendricks got one takedown on Story throughout that entire fight, but couldn't get much of anything else off on Story, who was able to dominate the fight with his fast-paced striking and his overall ability to remain active even in situations where it was clear that Story couldn't finish Hendricks.

A little bit of the same is what he needs to do against Alves; he shouldn't count on a first-round KO, but he should push the pace similarly to how he pushed it against the likes of Hendricks and even Brian Foster at UFC 103.

Alves loves the fast KOs, but his KO power has never gone up against a fighter that can push it quite like Story can.

Prove He Is a Strong Grappler

Self-explanatory case right here: Alves has had trouble with guys that can wrestle and guys that can out-grapple him, and he can't be called anything more than a tough SOB after his fight with John Howard at UFC 124 in which he dominated all three rounds and walked out with a decision.

Story is a wrestler who can push an aggressive pace with his southpaw striking and he can submit guys once he gets a hold of them.

If Story gets any type of submission hold on Alves, it won't matter if he's a Pitbull or a pup—he's not getting out of the bind without tapping.

Weaken Thiago on the Feet Before Going in for a Takedown

Do unto PItbull as Pitbull has done to everyone else, Story.

How do you stop a guy with good leg kicks and good Muay Thai?

Work outside, try and take the legs out from under him and then try for the takedown when you know he is weakened.

Granted, hurting Thiago Alves isn't easy to do, which is pretty much why I gained some respect for Fitch after his UFC 117 rematch with Alves; the bout was competitive on both sides, with both men unwilling to go down by a few basic strikes, so a decision seemed inevitable.

The difference between Fitch's prior fights and this rematch was that Fitch had to truly earn the scores he earned. Alves wanted to bring out the best Fitch ever and Fitch knew that in order to do twice what GSP couldn't do in 25 minutes, he had to survive 15 minutes with the best Thiago Alves he'd faced.

Story can take notes from what Fitch did, and while he definitely should not smother him for three rounds (predominantly because Story likes guys that come to fight instead of trying to put on a 15-minute wrestling match), he can definitely find some comfort if he decides to lower the takedown defense of Alves with the striking he can put forward.

Attacking the leg is something that might be tough to do against Alves, who has a reputation himself for having strong leg kicks in addition to his KO power, but this chance is the biggest one Story has had to date.

If he wants to make it count, he has to make certain that Alves starts to limp.

Respect the Muay Thai but Don't Fear the Muay Thai

Everyone knows about the Muay Thai of Alves; they know about it as much as they know about Jon Jones' Greco-Roman-suplex-to-spinning-elbow combination on Stephan Bonnar at UFC 94.

Most of the guys that have lost to Alves have tried to counter it by taking him down, but they eventually crumble on the feet, which has won Alves some fights.

Others have just had better ground games.

Some may question if Story has the skill set to beat Alves at this point in his career, but one thing you can never question is that Story—much like many of us in the B/R family—go balls-out every time regardless of the outcome.

In other words, he is the type that will gladly walk into a Muay Thai knee if it means Alves gets rocked or even just stunned by one of his wild right hooks.

That is normally the recipe for disaster in any other fight, but neither Alves nor Story meets the requirements for being "any other fighter."

Story must combat Alves' Muay Thai head-on; many pundits might believe that Story has to take Alves to the ground, but in the event that repeated takedown attempts fail, Story has to be prepared for the "trip to Hell and back" that is a stand-up battle with Alves.

After the Brian Foster fight, Story told Fight Lockdown:

"I don't like to say I idolize anything or anyone, but I would like to emulate Fedor's aggressive instinct, Anderson [Silva]'s elusive quick striking, and BJ Penn's ability to hype a fight. I train to be successful, and to make my team successful, I strive to be better than these fighters I just mentioned, but that is all expected."

Fedor and Anderson have both gone toe-to-toe in tough situations and have been able to come out on the winning end as a result of it.

Story will have to have an answer to the Muay Thai of the ATT wrecking machine if he hopes to achieve similar success to the fighters which he hopes to emulate.