Ethyn Ewing More Than Ready for His Encore

Just a couple of days prior to UFC 322, Malcolm Wellmaker’s opponent, Cody Haddon, suffered a foot injury that forced him from their highly anticipated clash at Madison Square Garden. The call to fill in opposite the rising star resulted in Ewing’s phone ringing, and after hustling to “The Big Apple” and making weight, he waltzed into Madison Square Garden and convincingly beat Wellmaker on one of the biggest cards of the year.

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“It was amazing, it was glorious; it was all the things you would think it would be,” he said of his torrid trek from California to New York to the UFC winner’s circle last November. “It was a whirlwind from getting the call to cutting the weight, getting the medicals done, jumping on the plane, sitting in New York traffic with them calling me every 5-10 minutes asking where I’m at. That was all a whirlwind, but as soon as I jumped on the scale, got some food in me, got to relax, it was awesome.

“There is no better first experience I could ever imagine,” continued the talented bantamweight prospect, who carries a 9-2 record into Saturday’s clash with Estevam. “New York City —I had never been, so that was a first for me. Madison Square Garden is the largest, best venue in the nation, possibly in the world, so there is nothing that beats it; it was amazing.

“Malcolm Wellmaker as well —these are all the things where when you look at it like, ‘When I jump into the UFC, I wanna get my feet wet, work my way up the ranks, blah blah blah,’ but in reality, to get somebody like Malcolm Wellmaker that had that hype train, that had knocked people out as viciously as he did, and to go in there and have that opportunity to face him right off the bat, kickstart what I’m doing trying to climb the ranks faster, that was the best possible outcome.”

It was also a moment that created some new opportunities for Ewing that should allow his professional career to flourish even more going forward.

Like many aspiring mixed martial artists, his days pre-UFC 322 consisted of an early alarm and eight-hour workday, with training tacked onto the back end of things before finally getting back home 15 or 16 hours later in order to crawl in bed and do it all over again the next day.

But in the wake of his win last year, Ewing has been able to step away from the job site and focus exclusively on his training, and believes it will result in this weekend being the best performance of his career.

“I’ve had the opportunity to train six days a week, three times a day, and put full effort into this, so this has been a huge boost in so many different ways,” he said. 

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“The idea is to immerse yourself fully in this stuff; it has to be on your mind constantly. That doesn’t mean you have to be going and tearing the body down constantly, but a lot of people forget that. For you to go and shadowbox for an hour in front of a mirror with perfect movement —checking your feints, your footwork, your movement; how you’re throwing the punch, really getting intricate with these things and making it a science —people forget how much that would make you grow.

“It’s been huge,” he said of the shift. “I get to train three times a day, I get to do all the extra running, the jump rope, the push-ups, the sit-ups, and the explosive stuff as well. I am 100-percent dialled in. This is the best you will see me, and I will have my best performance to date.”

In the wake of his breakthrough debut, Ewing rolls into his sophomore appearance with the promotion in a quality matchup commanding prime real estate on this weekend’s fight card as he takes on the undefeated Estevam in a bout that lands in the middle of the main card.

“The UFC knows how to promote their fights and their fights, so they are putting (me against) an undefeated individual, and this will only be my second one in the UFC, so they know what they’re doing,” Ewing said. “I think they are taking care of me, and once again going to project my path and where I’m going.

“Main card —I’m excited for it, this is right where I belong, and when I go out and put on this performance, it will only grow from there.”

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A Dana White’s Contender Series alum who has gone 3-0 inside the Octagon and 14-0 overall, Saturday is the Brazilian’s first start in the bantamweight ranks after missing weight in two of his first three UFC starts.

Though he’s fully aware of what Estevam does well, Ewing is fully confident that he has the skills and game plan needed to hand him the first loss of his career and earn his second straight UFC win.