UFC 322<\/a> inside the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York City.<\/p>\nAnd it couldn\u2019t have gone much better.<\/p>\n
The lone rookie on the card delivered a shocker, pulling off an upset unanimous decision win that immediately put the Bantamweight division on notice. Now that the dust has settled, let\u2019s hand out his debut grade.<\/p>\n
On just two days\u2019 notice, California\u2019s Ethyn Ewing stepped in as a +330 underdog to face hard-hitting prospect Malcolm Wellmaker \u2014 and then proceeded to stun the super-hyped newcomer with a performance fans should remember for a long time.<\/p>\n
Ewing brought the dog out. Just seven days removed from knocking out a Contender Series veteran to win Urijah Faber\u2019s A1 Combat interim Bantamweight title, he showed zero hesitation on the sport\u2019s biggest stage.<\/p>\n
From the opening bell, Ewing stood in the pocket with the power puncher and looked completely at home, not intimidated at all. His footwork was sharp, his boxing was crisp, and even when he ate Wellmaker\u2019s infamous counter left hook, he wore it well and fired back. He even mixed in a slick hip toss for good measure.<\/p>\n
The second round got dicey as Wellmaker targeted Ewing\u2019s body with teeps, knees, and hooks, briefly hurting him and draining his cardio. But even while navigating adversity, Ewing stayed composed and continued landing the cleaner combinations.<\/p>\n
With some believing the fight was tied heading into the third, Ewing left no doubt. He surged ahead, outworked Wellmaker down the stretch, and officially outstruck and handed \u201cThe Machine\u201d his first UFC loss \u2026 again, on just two days\u2019 notice.<\/p>\n
It was an incredible debut. Ewing showed he belongs, gained a ton of new fans, and gave every indication that he\u2019ll be someone to watch in 2026. Slick boxing, real power, underrated grappling, and a gas tank that holds up under pressure \u2014 he checks every box.<\/p>\n
For his next outing, I\u2019d like to see him fight Timothy Cuamba.<\/p>\n
For complete UFC 322 results, coverage, and highlights click HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You only get one Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debut! Only one athlete made their Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,162126,40762,785,32785,139415,85,162125,1396,85770,6656],"class_list":{"0":"post-289087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-jack-della-vs-islam-start-time","12":"tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","13":"tag-mma","14":"tag-mma-prospects","15":"tag-preview-and-live-results","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-ufc-322-fight-card","18":"tag-ufc-news","19":"tag-ufc-prelims","20":"tag-ufc-results"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}