Back in March of 2022, Ricky Glenn was looking to build on some solid momentum he had gained since moving to lightweight. After picking up a violent KO in his return in the division, he fought to a draw with highly touted Grant Dawson. The two big fights earned him a booking with Drew Dober and a chance to make noise in the rankings at 155lbs.
Unfortunately for Glenn, his body had other ideas. A groin injury caused him to pull from the fight, and it wasn’t a pretty one.
“It was quite the injury. It was a complete tear of the adductor longus tendon where it attaches at the pelvis bone,” Glenn explained. “It just suddenly happened, so it was a big halt on my momentum.”
While the injury happened suddenly, it was something the Iowa native had been dealing with for some time. Small indications that something might be wrong faded quickly, until it went from 0 to 100 in no time flat.
“It was something that I noticed in the past. Twisting and dipping too much with that leg, it felt like a stinger or like a muscle strain and then it’d go away when you warm up,” he said. “I was warming up and doing some wrestling stuff and I went to kick someone over and it just snapped. It felt like I got stabbed in the groin. It was pretty painful and I couldn’t lift my leg.”
The recovery involved surgery almost right away. Then he was off the mats for about six months before easing back into things.
Now back at full strength, Glenn is looking to get some of that momentum back. A fight this weekend at UFC Vegas 71 would be the first step – and he’s bringing his same violent self to get it done.
“My mindset has always been kill or be killed,” Glenn shared. “Just get in there and be nasty and be violent.”
He’ll be nasty and violent when he faced Christos Giagos as part of the ESPN+ prelims, which get started at 4:30pm EST.
You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 37:53.
