After all he's been through, Matt Grice is still a fighter

Matt Grice hooks his beefy fingers through the chain-link fence enclosing the ring.

With his barrel chest and thick arms, it looks like he could easily climb the fence and jump in. He stands instead with one foot crossed over the other and watches two fighters through the mental wiring. He mostly studies them, occasionally encourages them but always stays outside.

On the outside looking in is where he’ll stay.

A little over a year ago, it was different. He was in the middle of the action, an Oklahoma City cop by day and a rising star in the mixed martial arts world by night. One of our state’s four-time state high school wrestling champions, Grice became a wrestler at Oklahoma, then took to the combat sport almost a decade ago.