Logan Storley: No Turning Back

Logan Storley’s success hinges on his being more hammer than nail.

The four-time NCAA All-American wrestler, ex-Bellator MMA title contender and current Professional Fighters League hopeful will look to bounce back from the most lopsided loss of his career when he takes on Luca Poclit in the PFL 6 co-headliner on Friday at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Storley was last seen on April 19, when Shamil Musaev stopped him with punches in the second round of their encounter and buried him at the bottom of the regular-season standings. He had never before been finished.

“It was the first time,” Storley told Sherdog. “It’s just one of those things. He got me with a great punch. You’ve got to move forward and get ready. That’s really what we had to do. We knew we had the second fight. You want to go in there, try to get six points, set yourself up to get into those playoffs and right that wrong. That’s really where I’m at right now.”

Poclit answers the call as his next opponent and does so on short notice following the withdrawal of Laureano Staropoli. The 34-year-old SBG Ireland export has rattled off 10 consecutive victories ahead of his PFL debut, seven of them finishes. Poclit last fought at Bellator 299, where he took out Roman Faraldo with a first-round brabo choke on Sept. 23.

“Really, for me, the biggest thing is to take this fight where I need to take it,” Storley said. “I need to go in there and be dominant and get a finish. That’s what I need to do to be able to move forward, so that’s really my focus: being very dominant, going in there and trying to get a quick finish and getting rid of that last fight. That’s really where the focus is.”

After his defeat to Musaev, Storley went back to the drawing board at the Kill Cliff Fight Club in Deerfield Beach, Florida. There, he went about the retooling process under trusted coaches in Robbie Lawler, Henri Hooft, Dietter Navarro and Jason Strout. Storley could not be more confident in his preparation at the powerhouse gym.

“We got really good guys and great training partners,” he said. “With a gym that’s as great as our gym, there’s a lot of really good bodies. We’ve got a lot of big fights coming up for a lot of guys, and everyone’s moving along together. That’s where I’m at—just learning from that last fight, kind of forgetting about it, learning from it and getting ready and improving over these last few weeks. We’re making sure to be at peak performance.”

Training camps always have plenty of moving parts.

“You try to pick out one or two things they do really well, maybe little things that you see, a hole, and try to capitalize from that, but at the end of the day, you’re always trying to get better for yourself because you’re going to have more fights and you’re going to continue to move forward to different opponents,” Storley said. “For me, it’s about getting my skills better and then trying to find those little small details of where we could maybe take advantage of him.”

Though his chances took a significant hit in the loss to Musaev, Storley still holds out hope that he can put himself in position to chase the $1 million prize the PFL awards to the winner of each weight class at the end of the season.

“I need to go in there and I need to get a finish in order to give myself a shot to get in those playoffs,” he said. “Really, for me, that’s all I'm focused on right now—taking care of myself and giving myself an opportunity to be there.”