One of the most surreal moments in Stevie Ray’s UFC career occurred to him outside the Octagon. After “Braveheart” fought, and beat, Ross Pearson last November in Belfast, a picture circulated online that showed the two competitors years earlier.
In front of the Octagon, cool and collected, stood Pearson in a suit, laying his arm around a young fan who grinned wide-eyed into the camera that captured the moment he met one of his idols in the sport.
“I knew back then that I’d be fighting in the UFC at some point but it’s still surreal sometimes to look back,” said Ray, who returns to the Octagon this Sunday to battle Paul Felder, almost five years and as many UFC wins later.