LUKE RILEY STANDS across from his opponent.
Not in the UFC nor its European breeding ground Cage Warriors, but in an amateur bout in Thailand. He is just 10-years-old.
It was here — missing school to throw down on the other side of the world — that Riley said he knew mixed martial arts would become his life. He once brought home a European Muay Thai title to Liverpool, aged 13, but still wasn’t satisfied. Remarkably it wasn’t his performance or the level of competition that annoyed him; it was the lack of violence. He wanted more.
“At my age I find it disappointing we have to wear padding and we are not allowed to hit with elbows and knees,” at teenage Riley told his local newspaper at the time. “People don’t really get hurt, it is mainly just cuts and bruises, nothing too serious.
“I would prefer if there was no padding and we could fight with bare shins and use all the moves.”
IT HASN’T BEEN a linear journey to the UFC for Riley.
He put fighting ahead of his education as a child and took months out of school at a time to focus on MMA from a young age. He has put his life into the sport. And with his parents also putting everything they had into his fighting career, it was a gamble that had to pay off.
“Obviously I’m just from my working class family. So any money that was made was spent on me to pursue this career basically,” Riley tells ESPN ahead of fighting in the co-main event of UFC London this weekend against Michael Aswell Jr.
“I was going down to Leeds all the time for top coaching … Thailand, one-to-ones, strength and conditioning. Yeah, that was all paid for by them [his parents]. I can’t wait to pay them back in the future.
“That’s always been a big driver. Honestly, just repaying them and anyone who’s been by my side from the beginning and helped me. I’ve just always [wanted] to be able to repay them back in the future and I’m going to do it, definitely.”
While speaking to ESPN, Riley can’t even bear to think what he would be doing if not fighting professionally. It’s all he knows.
“Sometimes I do,” he considers. “But it’s very, very hard to think about that.
“The common ones are to be in jail or to be doing this. I don’t know … I wish I could tell you, but it’s all come to fruition. So I’m here now and where I said I’d be, the UFC. The best, the biggest, the big league, the best promotion. So I don’t need to think like that.”
He has since realised his ambition, first becoming one of the hottest talents in Europe with Cage Warriors to then winning his first bout with the UFC by knockout, three months after signing for the company last year.
His fast hands sent Bogdan Grad to the canvas before the unleashing a flurry of strikes on the ground to secure a stoppage victory in Round 2 in Qatar and maintain his unbeaten professional record.
Some way from fighting in Thailand when he should’ve been in school.
RILEY, STILL BASED out of his home city of Liverpool, trains alongside lightweight star Paddy Pimblett out of the tight-knit Next Generation MMA gym. Riley was a key sparring partner to mimic Justin Gaethje for Pimblett’s fight with the popular UFC veteran.
It is in this gym that Pimblett has had a front row seat to Riley’s ascent to the UFC, and he’s seen enough to make some mammoth predictions.
Predictions that Riley has yet to deviate from.
“I’ve been telling you about Luke for years, I always knew he was going to end up in the big show,” Pimblett said.
“He’s destined for greatness, he’s going to be one of the biggest fighters in the featherweight division, everyone’s going to know who he is.”
With roots in Muay Thai, Riley preceded his UFC debut with an 11-fight win streak in Cage Warriors — famously full of hungry young fighters who become future superstars — with nine of those wins by TKO or knockout.
His all-action fighting style, coupled with skills on the microphone that are intriguingly common to fighters that come out of Liverpool, made him a must-have for Dana White, someone Riley wasn’t afraid to call out when he was making winning a habit in Cage Warriors.
The fact that the 26-year-old makes up one half of the co-main event on his UFC homecoming, ahead of seasoned former Bellator and now bona fide UFC star Michael “Venom” Page who is further down on the main card, says much of the potential the organisation see not only in his abilities, but in his brand. The UFC bosses might just agree with Pimblett.
Riley has got used to the their treatment already. “Getting my kit bag, the stuff with the PI [Performance Institute], making your food. Just the whole [place], how it’s run. It’s a proper promotion,” he says.
“So obviously following the likes of Tom [Aspinall], Paddy and stuff, they’ve shown the way. But I’m looking to do my own thing I’m not really big on stepping in at late notice. I feel like you should be doing stuff on your own. It should be you.
“I want a full eight-to-10-week camp, fighting the best in the world. It’d be on my terms when it comes to fighting.”
Much to the delight of his parents, fighting did end up working out for Riley.
“I’m sort of a company man. I just get in the cage and handle business,” Riley said.
“The UFC, they’re running the show very well. It matched all the expectations … I’m just happy to fight.”
He now has another opportunity in what will be his first UFC fight on home soil on March 21 to prove to the world that there’s another Scouser ready to make it big on the biggest stage, and he doesn’t get knocked out either.