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Rick Story's Response to Mike Pierce
OK I figure this is one of the best places to start. What Mike Pierce said about me hitting Abel when he was on a knee saying stop is BULL SHIT. Abel wasn't some random person off the street either. At the time he was 1-1 as a professional and had been training with us for 3 months. He was a 4 time All-American for William Penn college in Iowa and actually beat me at nationals my first match my junior year at Southern Oregon University. What Mike also decided to forget to say is how many times Abel had tapped him that week in training (I think 2 by guillotine). What Mike also forgot to admit was how well Abel did in sparring against Brad Blackburn (at the time current UFC welterweight). Abel was new to our team but not new to the sport and not a poor defenseless kid. Abel did have Vertigo and had taken time off. Pat would not let him sparr without a doctors note saying he was cleared. I had talked with Abel before the session and asked him how his Vertigo was doing, he said he was cleared but to be safe I told him I would only throw body shots. We do sparr hard at BRAVE LEGION but not stupid. I would never hit anyone that was telling me stop. Anyway we have a rule too, if someone is rocked drop the intensity down to 10% and only throw to the body so your partner can recover to continue and we don't fall into the habit of stopping when someone is close to being finished. Pat would never encourage the continuance of hitting someone that says stop. Anyone that has half a brain would realize this wouldn't be something that could be kept secret for very long. How come this sounds like an isolated incident? Probably because it's a lie. If it happened before it wouldn't be something you could contain. Anyone that knows me would agree that I am not that kind of a person, and I am confident when I say this. Mike and Pat were never friends, Mike had been kicked off our team before because he wasn't a team player and it was just a fact their personalities clashed. The only reason we let Mike back on the team is because I told Pat I wanted him as a practice partner. I never not got along with Mike but he wasn't the kind of person that I would like to go hang out with I personally thought Mike was very self-centered and selfish and had a huge ego. As far as me being brain washed its far from the case. I am friends with Pat, we hang out and do things all the time and I cannot say the same for when Mike was on our team. I decided to invest in our gym BRAVE LEGION and have been running strong with our team ever since. Pat is an awesome coach a great friend and only has our teams best interest in mind. I listen to Pats coaching and don't think listening to my coach is a bad thing. Pats coaching has brought Mike and Myself to the UFC in a short period of time. Supposibly I am brain washed because I am still listening to my coach who got me into the UFC after ten months of training and working with my business partner to make sure my investment and my team succeeds. If this is brain washed well I guess I am guilty. I am a college graduate, spent 8 years in the National Guard and was a Platoon Leader for almost two years. I make my own decisions but work as a teammate with my coach and business partner Pat White bottom line, and because Mike is not a team player he probably wouldn't understand this concept.
This all happened around the time when Mike was preparing for his fight with Julio Paulino. I helped him train for this fight just like most of his other ones. He came out of that fight with a little bruise on his cheek and no other damage. I was not there but Pat had talked with Mike and said "since you didn't take any damage we are going to need you to be back in the gym on Monday to help Ricky for his fight in three weeks." Mike no-shows for an entire week. Pat and myself tried to call but typical non-team player he was he didn't answer his phone. Mike shows up on the following Tuesday I believe weighing almost 200lbs. Pat told Mike he needed to be at 190lb. training weight to be a good practice partner for me. Mike came in the next day weighing only a pound lighter, Pat told him it was the last time he could train if he wasn't going to make weight because he needed to be at a realistic weight for me. Pat told him to not show up until he was. Well that was the end, Mike never came back. Mike did leave a letter to Pat thanking him for all of the training and stating he would like to come back and sparr from time to time but our team was not a good fit for him. It left a bad taste in my mouth just for the fact that I helped him train for his fight and he decided to bail and not be a team player in my most crucial weeks of training for a fight.
These are some of the reasons why Pat and Me didn't want Mike on our team anymore. Mike and one of our teammates were told to go do a specific workout on the track and to do it with each other to help push themselves. Mike ends up taking his girlfriend to the track worked out by himself and left our car-less teammate who lived less then two minutes away high and dry to find his own way to the track. When confronted his response was something along the lines of him not being responsible for our teammate which I believe is really messed up. Pat told me about a time when they were at the airport and there was a lady on the ground crying looking through the contents of her dumped bag for a passport or something and Mike pointed and was laughing at her, what if something was seriously wrong with her? There was one time when Mike came into the practice room and told Pat and Me that his girlfriends child was retarded and locked the kid in the room because he was getting annoyed and then laughed. These are isolated events that stick out in my mind but know there are tons more, but all of these hopefully paint a little bit of a picture of what kind of a person Mike is behind the interview questions or cameras.
There were numerous times in person and in interviews where Mike has said this is an individual sport, just like wrestling which justifies how he acts. Try training for a fight on a desert island by yourself Mike. Mike has been at Team Quest and when he came to our team seemed to have countless bad things to say about Matt Linland and Robert Follis and how it sucked so bad there. It just seems like he is doing the same to us at BRAVE LEGION now. Mike is obviously trying to maliciously affect our gym and my career by telling lies about Pat and Myself. He seems like a crazy ex-girlfriend that tries to make their ex-boyfriends life miserable. I don't intend on having an Internet battle just giving my side to everyone. I have read the forums and I am seriously amazed at some of the things people say only hearing one side. Hopefully this evens things out a little bit and gets read by a lot of people. I did laugh about the all of the soul patch comments though.
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