UFC 139 Results: Was Rick Story Hyped Too Soon, Too Fast?

I could stop by answering the question of whether Rick "The Horror" Story was hyped too soon with a simple "no," but it seems as though there is still some speculation as to whether Story really was hyped too fast, too soon regardless, and all of it stems from one measly unanimous decision loss to Martin Kampmann last night.

First off, let's remember that while Kampmann did possibly face the chopping block with a loss, even if it was another loss by an asinine decision, he was also a step up for a man whose so-called "hype train" only came off the heels of two wins out of his most recent six-fight win streak.

Let's be honest: Would you even know about Story if he had lost to Johny Hendricks as he was pretty much supposed to?

Of course not, and you probably would not have heard him call Thiago Alves out either.

Truthfully, Story's streak came to prove that he was an X-factor in the UFC welterweight division instead of a statistic on John Hathaway's hype train, and truth be told, he more than proved that fact when he beat both Alves and Hendricks.

Now, Story's not using any outside circumstances surrounding his UFC on Versus 4 fight as an excuse for losing to Charlie Brenneman, so I won't either, but I will take a dig at the judge that first had the fight a 29-28 for Story, but then claimed to have made a mistake before changing his score to a 30-27.

No disrespect to that man, as we all make mistakes, but if 30-27 was the honest score, he must not have been watching the same fight I was.

Even though I too had Kampmann winning that Story fight, I thought that attempt at a rear naked choke would actually not nab Kampmann the third. Especially considering that Kampmann's first takedown attempt really didn't go anywhere and that Story's standup did a bit more damage than Kampmann's in the third.

That's how it appeared to me, but I digress.

Simply put, Story's hype train was detoured before it got derailed, but neither he nor his fans will make any excuses for it, because as stated before, Kampmann was more of a step up for Story than Story was a step down for Kampmann.

Story has not been hyped up too fast or too soon as a future contender because while the two key wins he earned were solid cases towards contention, he still has not earned his right to call himself as such.

He still wants to prove that his name does belong in the mix with the caliber of Nick Diaz, Georges St-Pierre, Jon Fitch and the like, and until he does, he won't be too worried about what he has to do in order to regain his status.

Besides, when it comes to being a fighter to watch, there's no question that despite his two-fight setback, Story is still exactly that, and fight fans can bet their bottom dollar that Story will earn back his reputation as being one of the UFC welterweight division's true dark horses.

Be sure to stay tuned to Bleacher Report for all things UFC 139. B/R is your home for complete coverage of the November 19 fight card , from pre-fight predictions to in-fight coverage, results and post-fight analysis.