UFC 130: Thiago Alves vs. Rick Story: Results, Thoughts and Opinions

The second fight of the UFC 130 main fight card featured another American Top Team fighter, Thiago Alves vs. Rick Story.

This welterweight match-up was one for the history books. Not because it was the most spectacular display of skill from either fighter, but because it was a passing of the torch, so to speak, from one top fighter in Alves to the hungrier Story.

"I'm fighting for a shot at the title.”

“I’m [going] to take it to Alves. I'm [going] go in and help him quit,” said Story.

“Don't call me out,” replied Alves. “Be careful what you wish for.”

Story is a beast in the octagon with a mindset like the Terminator.

His fight-game switch has only one position, and that’s on.

From the opening bell of round 1, Story came out guns blazing.

Thiago lands a right hand and a leg kick, but Story takes Alves down against the fence.

Alves got back to his feet and ate knees from Story while he stayed on top of Alves, both standing, and delivered knees to the thigh from any position that they would land.

Alves took Story down momentarily and they got back to their feet and into the clinch.

Eventually the ref broke them apart due to inactivity against the cage, but Alves threw a knee and Story pressed Alves against the cage, yet again.

Story is definitely a grinder. His trainers and coaches have said that from day one and this fight was no different from his last five.

Alves was now defending well against the cage as Story continued to grind and press for a takedown or at the very least, drain the life force from Alves.

Alves finally broke free and exchanged punches and landed a nice head kick that Story shrugged off.

Both fighters were swinging for the fences in an exchange that showed Alves was obviously the more technical striker and got the better of Story.

The round ends and both fighters go to their corners with round 1 scored 10-9 in favor of Story.

Between rounds, Story's corner says he's doing "perfect" and that "we're not going to finish him in the second, we're going to finish him in the third." 

Round 2 began and Alves starts things off with a strong leg kick.

They trade punches and Story briefly takes Alves down, but can’t keep him there as Alves uses the cage to get back to his feet.

Story presses Alves against the cage and Alves breaks away but is taken down again.

Though this will prove to be the blueprint for the rest of the fight, Alves did enough to earn a 10-9 score for round 2.

Round 3 looked a lot like round 1 as Story again dropped knees to the left thigh of Alves.

Thiago looked drained by this point in the fight and quite frustrated.

Alves broke away and instigated a stand up brawl a few seconds before the round ended with a score of 10-9 in favor of Story.

Story took a page directly out of Randy Couture's cage-grinding book and used his superior wrestling to best Alves in a unanimous decision win that was scored 29-28 for Rick Story.

After the fight Story told Joe Rogan, "I feel great! Alves throws hard punches."

Alves indeed throws hard punches, but they weren’t enough to keep Story from progressing up the ladder to title contention, while Thiago goes back to the drawing board.