While there, Price saw the class of the night being taught by Frank Cucci. It was the art of Muay Thai, and Price was immediately smitten. But as a college student trying to make ends meet, money for classes wasn’t an option. So he offered to clean the mats at the gym. Cucci agreed, and suddenly, being stood up on a date led Dorian Price to a discipline which has changed his life and helped bring him not only to mixed martial arts, but to the sixth season of The Ultimate Fighter reality show.
“I would describe it as a beautiful, deadly dance,” said Price of Muay Thai. “And I think what attracts me is the art and the discipline you get in Muay Thai. Not to say there’s not discipline in MMA, but MMA’s kind of a hybrid thing. I find that there are a lot more guys in MMA with egos and things to prove, and Thai Boxing is very, very disciplined and I find a lot more people that are more humble in it. I just think it’s a beautiful art form. There’s nowhere to hide in Thai Boxing. In MMA, you can go to the ground and do the lay and pray, but in Thai Boxing, you’ve got to man up. There are only two ways out of there – you’re either going to the decision or you’re going out cold. There are no submissions, no way to tap out – when you’re in there, you’re in there for the long haul. And to me, that teaches more discipline and it teaches perseverance more so than MMA.”
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But discipline and perseverance had been instilled in Price long before his first Muay Thai class. Born and raised in West Baltimore (a rough part of the city that has been immortalized in the HBO series The Wire), Price had plenty of opportunities to take the wrong path, but it was something his parents wouldn’t allow.
“A lot of people in my situation don’t even have a father in the picture, and I’ve been blessed to have a mother and a father around,” he said. “I have two great parents. A lot of friends I had didn’t have that.”
That’s not to say Price was an angel, as his first two years in high school were less than stellar examples of academic excellence – that is, when he showed up at all.
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“In ninth and tenth grade I would show up at school with a basketball to see if I could get enough people for a 3 on 3 game,” said Price. “And if no one wanted to go, I would go myself and shoot jumpshots all day. I never really went to school, and when I went I wasn’t really paying attention.”
His parents weren’t having it though, and when the opportunity came up for him to go to Connecticut to enroll in the Avon Old Farms boarding school, his father and his mother (who was nicknamed ‘The Saint of Baltimore’ for her tendency to have an open door policy for local kids who needed refuge in her home) jumped at the opportunity.
“When’s the soonest I can have him up there, because I can put him on the train tomorrow,” asked his mother.
