The 29-year-old South Dakotan will step in as a short-notice substitution when he confronts Michael Page for the interim Bellator MMA welterweight title in the Bellator 281 headliner on Friday at The SSE Arena in London. Storley enters the cage on the strength of a two-fight winning streak. He last appeared at Bellator 274, where he laid claim to a five-round unanimous decision over Neiman Gracie on Feb. 19.
As Storley makes final preparations in advance of his anticipated battle with Page, here are five things you might not know about him:
1. Small-town humility marked his upbringing.
Storley was raised in Roslyn, South Dakota, a city of less than 500 people located roughly 300 miles to the west of Minneapolis. It is home to the International Vinegar Museum.
2. Hand-to-hand competition always suited him.
“Storm” compiled a ridiculous 262-3 and won six state championships—he started his remarkable run as a seventh-grader—as a prep wrestler at Webster High School in Webster, South Dakota. He went on to enjoy a standout career at the University of Minnesota, where he was a four-time NCAA All-American for the Golden Gophers. Storley’s 119 career victories rank 17th on the school’s all-time list, and his .815 winning percentage places him inside the storied program’s Top 30.
3. He chooses his associates wisely.
Storley operates out of Sanford MMA in Deerfield Beach, Florida, where he trains under Henri Hooft and Greg Jones while sharpening his world-class skills along a host of accomplished stablemates, from Robbie Lawler, Luke Rockhold and Gilbert Burns to Vicente Luque and three-time Bellator champion Michael Chandler.
4. He made himself impossible to ignore.
The South Dakota native touched off his professional mixed martial arts career with 11 consecutive victories, eight of them finishes. Six of the 11 resulted in stoppages inside the first round, including a 33-second technical knockout of Lemetra Griffin at a Resurrection Fighting Alliance show in 2016.
5. His only blemish figures to age quite well.
Storley suffered the only defeat on his ledger at Bellator 252, where he wound up on the wrong side of a split decision against current welterweight champion Yaroslav Amosov. The undefeated 28-year-old Amosov—whom Storley agreed to replace in the main event opposite Page—has put together a perfect 26-0 record to this point.