Saturday night’s UFC 322 card delivered some unforgettable performances at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Former lightweight king Islam Makhachev elevated himself into rarified air, becoming a double champion by dominating and dethroning welterweight titleholder Jack Della Maddalena. Flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko turned back the challenge of former strawweight champion Weili Zhang with her own shutout decision victory. But did any fighter have a better night than Ethyn Ewing? Because three days before the pay-per-view card, Ewing wasn’t even a UFC fighter. To put this into further context, only those in Ewing’s world and the hardest of hardcore MMA fans would have known who Ewing was. But in a span of two and a half days, Ewing went from waking up in his bed in Yorba Linda to signing a four-fight contract with the premier MMA organization and walking out of Madison Square Garden being hailed by throngs of fans. Ewing and his circle call it a whirlwind, but that doesn’t begin to describe it. More like a whirlpool in a tornado, a head-dizzying 60-hour sojourn into one of the world’s most iconic sports meccas and coming out of it with the unlikeliest of unlikely upsets. “I just believe in the manifestation and the laws of attraction,” Ewing, 27, said in an exclusive interview three days after his stunning UFC debut. “I truly believe that putting that out into the universe and thinking about it and speaking about it, and then going and working for it and truly believing it’s attainable, are just so powerful. And so I’ve done that a lot. “It’s resided in my mind for quite some time now, and I knew this moment was coming. Many had bet against Ewing, literally and figuratively. 7, in Wheatland, Calif. Not too bad for a guy who lost his first two fights and almost quit the sport. Here’s how it all went down for Ewing, who by the way is a full-time safety manager who is also starting his own company with his dad. And he and his wife, Haley, are expecting their first child Dec. 10. THURSDAY Not even a week after winning his first title, with his eighth consecutive victory and all by finishes after his 0-2 start, Ewing was taking it easy. He had set his alarm for 8: 30 a. m. and planned to go to The Den, run by coach Ben Jones, a few minutes away in Yorba Linda for some light sparring. Ewing had continued to run and stay in shape, just in case. You never knew when the UFC would come calling. But they called. And so did apparently everyone else. By the time Ewing awoke after sleeping through his alarm, he had about 40 missed calls and a jolting text from his sister: “Call Dad. It’s an emergency.” “That’s the first one I saw. I’m like, ‘Oh shoot, someone got in a car accident or something crazy happened,” Ewwing said. “And I called him. He was all fired up, excited. ‘Call your coach right now.’” Steve Ewing knew his son, the oldest of eight siblings, was a fighter from a young age. Ethyn had overcome a nearly fatal bout of RSV pneumonia at 10 months. His dad watched him shake off injuries like nothing. “My wife and I used to always say he lives each month, each day, like he knew that was his last day, but he beat the odds, so he just continues to press on and appreciate each day,” Steve Ewing said. Ethyn’s dad trained MMA and fought before the sport was considered mainstream, working out with legends like Tito Ortiz and Rampage Jackson. He could see the tenacity in his son as he wrestled at Canyon High in Anaheim and King University in Tennessee, even predicting Ethyn was going to be a UFC fighter one day. “They have a really tight, close family bond. I mean, his dad is the one that brought him to me,” Jones said. “His dad and I used to train together when I first started. So it was, it was just a full circle.” About 8: 10 a. m., Jones got the heads-up: Cody Haddon was forced off the UFC 322 card due to injury. The spot to fight Wellmaker, a 10-0 up-and-comer with first-round finishes in both his UFC fights, was theirs for the taking. When Ewing finally got in touch with Jones roughly an hour later, his coach spelled out the opportunity. Ewing had weighed 136 pounds a week earlier for his bantamweight bout. He needed to be 146 pounds to fight Wellmaker. Ewing’s scale read 157. “He’s like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it,’” Jones said. “I go, ‘I already said yes. Come in and let’s start cutting weight.” That kicked off a frenzied day. Ewing began baking in a sauna suit at The Den. He got his blood work done in Yorba Linda. His brother drove him to Pasadena for an EKG at 4 p. m., then it was on to Beverly Hills for an MRI at 7 p. m. At 10 p. m., Ewing, his father, Jones and boxing coach Dale Roybal Jr. caught a flight out of LAX for Newark, New Jersey. Jason House, Ewing’s manager, was helping orchestrate it all. One week removed from the madness, the CEO of Iridium Sports Agency, who has been in the game for 16 years and managed hundreds of fighters, marvels at what Ewing accomplished. “I think that is one of the most crazy situations of my career,” House said. “What he was able to execute in a 24-hour period was so impressive. And while his performance in the cage is what everyone’s talking about, what impressed me most was his professionalism outside the cage and getting the medicals done, getting all the paperwork in on time and making it on time to New York. “He literally got off the plane and went straight to weigh-ins without even checking into his hotel room, and made weight.” FRIDAY Once the flight landed before 7 a. m. New York time, the race to get to the hotel holding the weigh-ins was on. Ewing commutes to work in Culver City. He knows traffic. Or at least he thought he did. “New York’s a different animal. Yeah, bumper to bumper,” he recalled of the 90-minute ride. Mind you, Ewing didn’t eat or drink all day Thursday. He was able to sleep some on the flight. Jones, meanwhile, had work to do. “I didn’t sleep at all. I was studying the guy we’re going to fight. I was studying Wellmaker as much as I could,” said Jones, who scoured fight videos, taking in Wellmaker’s style, tendencies and tells. Once Ewing and his team arrived at the hotel, UFC officials whisked Ewing away to get him his gear and ready for the weigh-ins. As Ewing waited his turn, several fighters, coaches and UFC staffers approached to welcome him and offer their admiration. Jones watched it all and knew one thing: For as gracious as they all were, no one was giving Ewing a chance. “We were sitting backstage for weigh-ins, and I go, ‘You know that these guys are your peers now, yeah? You’re one of them, right?” Jones said. “Like, they’re not these guys you gotta look up to anymore and be like, ‘God, I hope one day I’m there.’ Like, no, you’re one of them, dude. So don’t look at these guys as heroes and idols anymore. You’re just one of them, man.” Ewing admits stepping on the scale in front of all the media and the shuttering cameras was a pinch-me moment. Same goes for the ceremonial weigh-ins later that day inside Madison Square Garden, where fans booed Ewing. And to top off his Big Apple experience, later in the evening while taking in Times Square, Ewing and his father got hit by a car that had passed by them and then quickly began backing up. “I’m like, ‘Hey, I’m walking hee-yuh!!!’” Ewing joked with some added New York swagger. “It was all good, no injuries.” SATURDAY Ewing says like all his fight days, it starts cool. As the day passes, the anticipation creeps in and begins to gnaw. And then reality introduces itself. But this 11th fight day was different. “I’m in the locker room that I’ve seen many times on TV, I have my whole full fight kit there for not only my team, you know, but I got to have my father out there with me, which was just an amazing opportunity, amazing moment,” Ewing said. Much like the day before at the weigh-ins, as Ewing and his team went from the locker room to the staging area and then onto the Madison Square Garden floor, Jones was in his fighter’s ear. “I just kept telling him, it’s just another cage. It’s just another man,” Jones said. “It’s not gonna matter what it says on your gloves and what kind of shorts you’re wearing or who’s watching. Once that fight starts, it’s just a fight. Just go out there and get in a fistfight.” Roybal had his own pinch-me moment as they walked toward the cage. Knowing how many illustrious fighters and legendary scraps had taken place there hit home for the boxing coach who toils with Ewing in a garage. “As a fight coach, especially as a boxing coach . just the dream of every coach to go to Madison Square Garden. That’s like Holy Land,” Roybal said. “I don’t even have words to describe it.” Said Steve Ewing: “It was more of that, that giggle inside me. I kept looking back at everybody like that. If there was a celebrity, I was trying to make eye contact so I could smirk at them. It was just more that: ‘Hey, I know something you guys don’t. You thought you brought you a lamb to the wolf, but you didn’t realize you brought a tiger to fight the wolf.’” Meanwhile in Anaheim Hills, Ewing’s wife, mom, brothers and sisters gathered with some of the neighbors’ kids for the customary watch party. Haley Ewing, who at nine months pregnant had hoped to attend the fight but was denied by her doctor, said the room was full of positive energy. ‘If anyone could go and beat this guy, it was going to be Ethyn,” she said. “He has worked so hard to get to that point that we had all the faith in the world. We gathered, we said a prayer, and we had all the faith in the world that everything would work out just how it was supposed to. And it did.” Undaunted as a +360 underdog, Ewing took it straight to Wellmaker. The commentary team raved about his talent and poise, a credit to Ewing and all three men in his corner. Ewing outstruck Wellmaker 99-82, unleashing a full arsenal of fists, kicks, elbows and knees. He took him down three times while denying all three of Wellmaker’s takedown attempts. Said Jones: “I think there was probably four people in that whole MSG who knew it was going to happen, and you know, just so happened they were all on our team.” As Bruce Buffer read off the scorecards, Ewing wore a grin of confidence. It was a unanimous decision: 30-27, 29-28, 29-28. “To hear Bruce Buffer say his name was like chill to the bone. Like you won the lottery,” Steve Ewing said. For Roybal, waiting for the decision to be read was “nail biting. I just remember when they finally announced it, and it went our way, like we felt it was, I screamed so loud. And I just remember looking at (UFC analyst) Joe Rogan standing next to me laughing. He could tell we were enjoying the moment.” And 2, 800 miles away, a house in Anaheim Hills went raucous. Haley Ewing, once cognizant to not get too rowdy in her condition, was in the middle of it. “Yes, very mindful. Did not want to, you know?” she said. “I mean, actually, I was jumping in all the videos and stuff we have. I’m jumping up and down. So I don’t know how mindful in the moment I was, but I like to think before and after I really tried not to go into labor.” Yet during his postfight interview with Rogan, Ewing coolly looked into the camera: “The sword is deadliest in calm hands.” THE AFTERMATH UFC President and CEO Dana White made a point to approach Ewing at Friday’s weigh-ins to thank him and promised he’d be sending him a little something in the mail. The boss appreciates fighters who rise to the occasion. “You’re either that guy or you’re not,” White said of Ewing at the postfight press conference. “It’s not something like, ‘Oh, that guy did it. I should probably do that too.’ You’re built differently than everybody else is and, uh, this kid’s wired differently than a lot of people are.” That was not news to those who know Ewing. Nor was the victory. Biggest for Ewing now, though, is his hope to spread his message: “Peace and positivity and kindness, man, Be kind to one another, uplift each other, and remember to put God first. He is the most important, and through Him, all things are possible and we’re capable of everything. And if we can do that as a people, then I think there’ll be a lot of great change to come in the future.” After leaving the Garden, Roybal says they laughed as Ewing’s Instagram exploded from 1, 900 followers to more than 20, 000. Ewing and his team wound down with a celebration, but not too big. They had an early flight back home. “Dale, his boxing coach, was emotional. That was his first win ever cornering in the UFC. It was his dad’s first time cornering in the UFC. Like, they were emotional,” Jones said. “I have been there so many times before. That was very emotional for me too, just because it’s like vindication, if you will. You know, vindication of ‘Wow, this young man stayed the path, followed the course, and look what he’s doing.’” Now, Ewing is home again, returning to his long commutes to work and back, counting the days for his family to grow. His Instagram now sits at 25, 500 followers. The bio serves as a warning not to bet against him: “Dream chaser UFC FIGHTER Parlay killer” He’ll be ready to drop back down to bantamweight and return to the Octagon, but not for a few months. The past week has been more than enough. “I’ll be training like I always do. I’m going to have an opportunity to do a lot more skill building and fine-tune before jumping into a fight camp where I’m really just red-lining all the time. And I’m excited for that,” Ewing said. “I’m excited to see how much better I can get and how much I can learn, how much I can grow. “But yeah, this next couple months, I’ll actually be able to enjoy the holidays without having to cut the weight, and I will be able to welcome my baby boy and support my wife, and just be there 100 percent mind, body and spirit.”.
https://www.sgvtribune.com/2025/11/20/ethyn-ewings-wild-60-hour-ride-into-ufc-lore/
Ethyn Ewing’s wild 60-hour ride into UFC lore
