"I like fighting really consecutive (fights). I don’t like taking long layoffs," Story told MMAWeekly.com. "When I (was first) a professional fighter, for the the first year or so, I had a bunch of fights; I had, like, a fight every month and I loved it because I never got out of shape and I was always learning. When you get out of shape, you’re just struggling to catch your breath and you can’t be in your perfect form all the time. But when you’re in shape, you're in perfect form over, over and over. And you get those reps in and you get really good real quick. I like getting better quick and I like staying in shape."
His reaction to the offer to fight Marquardt is about what you've expect if you've seen a few Story interviews over the years:
"I don’t care, let’s do it," he said when talking about his reaction to accepting the fight with Marquardt.
Somewhat surprisingly, Story completely understands where Jon Fitch is coming from. Last week, Fitch said he had no interest in fighting Story and only wants B.J. Penn or welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre. Story respects it:
"I think it’s more practical," Story said when comparing the Marquardt fight versus one with Fitch. "Fitch, obviously, doesn’t want to fight because he doesn’t feel I’m a big enough name, so if he wants to be that way, I’ll fight Marquardt, I don’t care. But at this point, I want to get the title shot too. And I have to respect that Fitch is on, like, a nine-fight win streak and he wouldn’t want to fight guy a guy like me."
I'm not sure I'd be so charitable with my words if someone had said that about me, but Story is a pretty modest guy. If he can beat Nate Marquardt in Nate's welterweight debut, it's not going to take much longer for Story to get those big fights. Guys like Fitch will have no choice, because Story will be approaching the top of the heap at welterweight pretty quickly.