UFC debut on a pay-per-view<\/a> at \u2014 of all places \u2014 Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\nHe couldn\u2019t be totally blamed for needing some extra shuteye. Ewing had just fought days earlier, winning an MMA fight on Nov. 7 as part of the A1 Combat promotion.<\/p>\n
Ewing\u2019s whirlwind 48 hours from call time to bell time whisked him from California to New York with everything \u2014 from a weight cut to a weigh in to a late-night stroll through Times Square \u2014 thrown in before he fought Malcolm Wellmaker at UFC 322 on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs this real? Am I supposed to be here,\u201d Ewing said as he wandered Times Square. \u201cAll the big lights, the action, the movies. This is where it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
From Rudy to Rocky, sports fans love an underdog on the big screen.<\/p>\n
The Garden fans sure loved this unknown fighter who stepped in as a last-minute injury replacement and beat the undefeated Wellmaker via unanimous decision to give him two MMA wins in only eight days.<\/p>\n
So how does a fight like this happen?<\/p>\n
Only the most niche of hardcore fight fans had probably ever heard of Ewing, who dropped his first two pro fights before winning eight straight overall headed into his UFC debut.<\/p>\n
This is where the UFC matchmakers \u2014 who meet with CEO Dana White each Tuesday \u2014 enter the picture.<\/p>\n
Ewing was plucked from a deep well of potential prospects to earn a shot at fighting on a UFC card headlined by two title fights.<\/p>\n
Tapology, the leading combat sports database, listed 3,033 MMA fighters who have competed this year through Nov. 15 in the United States and who are not signed to the UFC. If not restricted to the United States, that number balloons to 17,451 fighters.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where UFC matchmaker Sean Selby comes in, a veteran of the fight game who pours through hours of tape each day from even the smallest regional MMA promotions to potentially find the next big star.<\/p>\n
Or least a fighter who\u2019s available in a pinch.<\/p>\n
Injuries are part of the game and UFC was in a bit of a bind when Cody Haddon was hurt.<\/p>\n
The most pressing question in that circumstance is, should UFC find a replacement fighter or kick the originally scheduled fight down the road? <\/p>\n
Wellmaker badly wanted a coveted spot on the UFC 322 preliminary card \u2014 and it wasn\u2019t his fault when one opponent dropped out with an injury and then Haddon, Shelby said, \u201cexploded his foot on his trainer\u2019s elbow\u201d during camp, which necessitated another new fighter.<\/p>\n
Shelby scouted other fighters ahead of Ewing to find the matchup that made the most sense. One potential prospect was injured. Another was too heavy for the scheduled 145-pound fight. Shelby also scanned a list of fighters already in the UFC pipeline, such as ones involved in \u201cDana White\u2019s Contender Series.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe worst thing that could ever happen as far as I\u2019m concerned is it ends up being a mismatch,\u201d Shelby said. \u201cI want to set up the most credible spot possible and let the chips fall when they may.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ewing emerged as a top target, even though he had fought days earlier in Wheatland, California, where he scored a first-round knockout win. His mandated medical time off was set to expire, so the fighter was off to get checked out, book a flight, and make weight (he said he cut about a dozen pounds to face Wellmaker).<\/p>\n
\u201cHe probably hadn\u2019t had time to get too fat,\u201d Shelby said. \u201cSo, I felt good about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s next for Ewing?<\/p>\n
Shelby said Ewing was considered a rising prospect \u2014 he was on the company\u2019s radar for a spot possibly next year in the \u201cContender\u201d series \u2014 and there are no plans to waste the buzz created by the UFC rookie.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what makes it so amazing for him. It\u2019s so tough to come in short notice,\u201d Shelby said. \u201c(Wellmaker) has been preparing and is at the very, very top of his peaking right then and you\u2019ve got a guy coming in on a day\u2019s notice. You\u2019re worried about doing your medicals, you\u2019re worried about cutting weight. You have all these things stacked against you. He had 24 hours. That\u2019s rare, that a guy comes out like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ewing actually signed a four-fight deal with UFC ahead of the Wellmaker bout and he could step inside the cage again as soon as early next year. Ewing and his wife are expecting a baby boy on Dec. 10, and he said the impending birth would consume the bulk of his time. <\/p>\n
But should another fighter in the preferred 135-pound weight class withdraw, and another pinch-hitter is needed, Ewing could get the call.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he did this, because he took that chance, everybody\u2019s going to want to see him again,\u201d Shelby said. \u201cHe\u2019s bumped way up as far as probably where he\u2019s going to go on the card and what card he\u2019s going to be on.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP sports: https:\/\/apnews.com\/sports<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Ethyn Ewing slept through dozens of calls and text messages Thursday morning, from everyone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,485,168182,958,786,168181,37746,10280,785,1025,1026,168180,85,1055],"class_list":{"0":"post-292478","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-california","11":"tag-cody-haddon","12":"tag-dana-white","13":"tag-fighting","14":"tag-local-news-for-apple","15":"tag-malcolm-wellmaker","16":"tag-mixed-martial-arts","17":"tag-mma","18":"tag-new-york","19":"tag-new-york-city","20":"tag-sean-shelby","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-united-states"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292478","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=292478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}