Fight Path: WSOF 5's Rick Glenn committed to MMA as 17-year-old Staples employee

Rick Glenn was a teenager taking a phone call on a break from his shift at Staples when he became an MMA fighter.

Up until that point, not much of his MMA experience had been very traditional, as he transitioned some boxing training when his gym closed to some self-taught MMA skills to a friend’s basement to an uncle’s garage.

His thirst for adventure had already led him to a strong interest in BMX biking, when groups of friends that sometimes numbered in the dozens would ride around town. But that didn’t quite meet his interest in fighting.

Which is why he was anxious to take that call about seven years ago and ask off early from his shift.

“I called my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, and I said, ‘I got offered this fight, get my shorts, get my cup, and get my mouthpiece,’” Glenn told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I get to the event, and the people said, ‘You have five minutes to get ready.’”

Just as he quickly organized everything he needed for that amateur debut, Glenn drove his own early MMA training and entrance into the sport, where he has blossomed. He heads into a preliminary-card bout against Artur Rofi at World Series of Fighting 5 on Sept. 14 with a six-fight winning streak that has boosted the 24-year-old featherweight’s record to 13-2-1. (His bout streams live on MMAjunkie.com.)

Glenn’s appearance at the event – headlined by Andrei Arlovski vs. Mike Kyle and also including two middleweight tournament semifinals in Dave Branch vs. Danillo Villefort and Elvis Mutapcic vs. Jesse Taylor – marks his second WSOF appearance in a career that dates back to 2006.

Now feeling antsy because about six months have passed since his most recent fight, Glenn is looking forward to his next challenge.

“I joke around with people that a lot of guys say they’re hungry – well, I’m starving,” he said. “It’s been too long since I was in there, so I’m ready.”

Self-construction

Glenn was born and raised in Marshalltown, Iowa, which is located about an hour’s drive northeast of the capital city of Des Moines. At first hearing the city name, one pictures an idyllic Midwestern town.

Glenn said the city had many benefits, but it wasn’t perfect.

“For awhile it was known as like the meth capital of the world,” Glenn said. “There are a lot of good people, but there were a lot of druggies too. You could definitely spot the people who were into it. They weren’t hard to find.”

He grew up with two early interests, boxing and BMX riding. The first he started pretty much in the backyard with play gloves and no instruction, just instinct. The second placed him in some a few stickier situations.

“I got pretty serious with it,” he said. “I would hit up the streets and the parks. We used to ride in packs, sometimes like 30 or 40, and we’d be running from cops or security guards and grinding on rails, all that stuff.”

As a teenager, he worked out at a local boxing gym in hoping to avoid the fate he saw in some of the town’s residents. He went as far as drinking raw eggs in the morning before runs and workouts, something he laughs about now.

Because the gym wasn’t very big, Glenn would sometimes travel elsewhere as he took boxing more seriously. But when he was about 14, his regular gym closed, and he needed another fighting option.

“There were some guys around doing some MMA stuff, and I thought it would be good to try,” he said. “It was actually exactly what I needed.”

Building into a fighter

Glenn laughs a bit now when describing his early MMA training experiences. But while he does, one can sense how much of his career he had to drive on his own.

He started in a friend’s basement, but when that friend could no longer train, Glenn switched to his uncle’s garage. At times he would travel to the bigger Iowa cities for more exposure, and it didn’t take him long to find some competition.

He didn’t mind starting small, which is how it began when he left his Staples shift early as a 17-year-old for a short-notice opportunity.

“I had to change in a bathroom,” he said. “I fought an older guy, but that’s how it was for my first couple fights.”

Glenn squeezed 17 amateur fights into a short period and compiled a 15-1-1 record in those before becoming a professional in 2006. After starting his career with a 3-2 record, he hasn’t lost since, a stretch of 11 fights and more than three years.

He and his wife made the decision about two years ago to move to Milwaukee so he could train full-time with the Roufusport MMA Academy and founder Duke Roufus, whom Glenn met through connections in Iowa. In hindsight, he thinks his pro career started a bit too early, but he has made up for it with a variety of promotions and a significant series of wins.

“I was pretty young when I started fighting, and I just wasn’t training at the right places,” he said. “Now I have this world-class coaching, and I’m doing it full-time. I feel like I’m in a great position right now.”

Catching up

Last week, Walter Gahadza told us how his background as a 100-meter sprinter might have contributed to his impressive string of first-round victories. Last Saturday, though, he needed to last a bit longer.

Gahadza moved to 12-0 by beating Alan Johnston by unanimous decision at Made 4 the Cage 11. The welterweight from Essex, England, saw a fight go past the first round for just the second time, but he retained his undefeated record.

Award-winning newspaper reporter Kyle Nagel pens “Fight Path” each week. The column focuses on the circumstances that led fighters to a profession in MMA. Know a fighter with an interesting story? Email us at news [at] mmajunkie.com.