Filed under: News, Radio Highlight, UFC, Videos

Rick Glenn’s life has changed quite a bit since joining the UFC.

After a gritty short-notice UFC debut loss against Evan Dunham in September 2016, which earned “Fight of the Night” honors, Glenn left a day job at Costco to focus exclusively on his fighting career. The decision proved wise in his following fight, when a split decision over Phillipe Nover gave Glenn his first octagon win.

Glenn then made yet another big move, leaving Milwaukee to train in California at Sacramento-based Team Alpha Male. The result showed even more clearly this time, as Glenn thrashed Gavin Tucker at UFC 215 to earn a glaringly obvious unanimous decision.

Like almost every MMA fighter, Glenn followed Urijah Faber’s career and had entertained plans of moving to California for a while before it finally came together. Of course, it’s not often that reality lives up to expectations. But it seems that isn’t the case for Glenn.

“No,” Glenn promptly answered with a laugh, when asked whether he’d had trouble adjusting. “No. It’s nice and warm. It’s sunny here pretty much all the time. Right now in the Midwest it’s getting pretty cold and snowy, so I’m not missing that.”

Of course, there’s more to it than the weather.

Glenn (20-4-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC), who’s now set to meet fellow featherweight Myles Jury (16-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC) on Dec. 30 at UFC 219, used to have to split his training between different facilities. While that didn’t stop him from putting together a highly victorious record that included a title under the now-defunct WSOF banner, it’s nice to have all of his training under one roof.

But, most importantly, the 28-year-old gets to train in a center that is known for its excellence in producing and honing high level contenders in lower weight divisions.

“That was the biggest thing,” Glenn said. “I had a lot of injuries in the past from training with guys that were multiple weight classes above me – and maybe some people not as consistent or at the level that I needed to be training with, so it’s nice to have kind of the complete package out here.”

At UFC 219, Glenn has a chance to keep his momentum going at the expense of Jury’s – who recently bounced back beautifully from a two-fight skid that halted a 15-0 early career run. While Glenn won’t talk trash or make bold predictions of crazy finishes for this one, his understated confidence makes just as strong of a statement.

“I know he’s smart,” Glenn said. “He’s got some octagon IQ, as well. I think it’s going to come down to whoever makes the most mistakes and has the biggest gas tank.

“I’m pretty confident going into this fight. I like the matchup. The training has been going great. I love it out here at Team Alpha Male. Yeah, everything’s going pretty good.”

To hear more from Glenn, check out the video above.

And for more on UFC 219, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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Filed under: News, Radio Highlight, UFC, Videos