Ethyn Ewing won his 2nd MMA fight in 8 days in his UFC debut in New York. How does that happen?

NEW YORK (AP) — Ethyn Ewing slept through dozens of calls and text messages Thursday morning, from everyone from anxious family members to his inner fight camp circle.

Wake up, Ethyn. His UFC dream was waiting for him.

“My sister, she never calls me in the morning,” Ewing said. “She said, ‘call dad, it’s an emergency.’ I thought it was a car accident or something. I was not thinking (UFC). I called my dad back first. He goes, ’I’m gonna whup your ass if you don’t wake up and answer your phone calls.”

The 27-year-old Ewing answered the bell with about 48 hours' notice to make his UFC debut on a pay-per-view at — of all places — Madison Square Garden.

He couldn't 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.

Ewing's whirlwind 48 hours from call time to bell time whisked him from California to New York with everything — from a weight cut to a weigh in to a late-night stroll through Times Square — thrown in before he fought Malcolm Wellmaker at UFC 322 on Saturday night.

“Is this real? Am I supposed to be here,” Ewing said as he wandered Times Square. “All the big lights, the action, the movies. This is where it happens.”

From Rudy to Rocky, sports fans love an underdog on the big screen.

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.

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.

This is where the UFC matchmakers — who meet with CEO Dana White each Tuesday — enter the picture.

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.

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.

That's 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.

Or least a fighter who's available in a pinch.

Injuries are part of the game and UFC was in a bit of a bind when Cody Haddon was hurt.

The most pressing question in that circumstance is, should UFC find a replacement fighter or kick the originally scheduled fight down the road?

Wellmaker badly wanted a coveted spot on the UFC 322 preliminary card — and it wasn't his fault when one opponent dropped out with an injury and then Haddon, Shelby said, “exploded his foot on his trainer's elbow" during camp, which necessitated another new fighter.

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 “Dana White's Contender Series.”

“The worst thing that could ever happen as far as I'm concerned is it ends up being a mismatch,” Shelby said. “I want to set up the most credible spot possible and let the chips fall when they may.”

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).

“He probably hadn't had time to get too fat,” Shelby said. “So, I felt good about it.”

Shelby said Ewing was considered a rising prospect — he was on the company's radar for a spot possibly next year in the “Contender” series — and there are no plans to waste the buzz created by the UFC rookie.

“That's what makes it so amazing for him. It's so tough to come in short notice,” Shelby said. “(Wellmaker) has been preparing and is at the very, very top of his peaking right then and you've got a guy coming in on a day's notice. You're worried about doing your medicals, you're worried about cutting weight. You have all these things stacked against you. He had 24 hours. That's rare, that a guy comes out like this.”

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.

But should another fighter in the preferred 135-pound weight class withdraw, and another pinch-hitter is needed, Ewing could get the call.

“Because he did this, because he took that chance, everybody's going to want to see him again," Shelby said. “He's bumped way up as far as probably where he's going to go on the card and what card he's going to be on.”

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Ethyn Ewing celebrates after defeating Malcolm Wellmaker during a featherweight bout at the UFC 322 mixed martial arts event, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Ethyn Ewing, left, punches Malcolm Wellmaker, right, during the first round of a featherweight bout at the UFC 322 mixed martial arts event, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Ethyn Ewing, right, punches Malcolm Wellmaker, left, during the second round of a featherweight bout at the UFC 322 mixed martial arts event, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Ethyn Ewing, left, punches Malcolm Wellmaker, right, during the first round of a featherweight bout at the UFC 322 mixed martial arts event, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Ethyn Ewing, right, punches Malcolm Wellmaker, left, during the third round of a featherweight bout at the UFC 322 mixed martial arts event, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement though not yet deployed to city streets.

There have been protests every day since the Department of Homeland Security ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers.

Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-ICE demonstration, saying on social media beforehand that he intended to “burn a Quran” on the steps of City Hall. But it was not clear if he carried out that plan.

Only a small number of people showed up for Lang’s demonstration, while hundreds of counterprotesters converged at the site, yelling over his attempts to speak and chasing the pro-ICE group away. They forced at least one person to take off a shirt they deemed objectionable.

Lang appeared to be injured as he left the scene, with bruises and scrapes on his head.

Lang was previously charged with assaulting an officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder and other crimes before receiving clemency as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping act of clemency for Jan. 6 defendants last year. Lang recently announced that he is running for U.S. Senate in Florida.

In Minneapolis, snowballs and water balloons were also thrown before an armored police van and heavily equipped city police arrived.

“We’re out here to show Nazis and ICE and DHS and MAGA you are not welcome in Minneapolis,” protester Luke Rimington said. “Stay out of our city, stay out of our state. Go home.”

The state guard said in a statement that it had been “mobilized” by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz to support the Minnesota State Patrol “to assist in providing traffic support to protect life, preserve property, and support the rights of all Minnesotans to assemble peacefully.”

Maj. Andrea Tsuchiya, a spokesperson for the guard, said it was “staged and ready” but yet to be deployed.

The announcement came more than a week after Walz, a frequent critic and target of Trump, told the guard to be ready to support law enforcement in the state.

During the daily protests, demonstrators have railed against masked immigration officers pulling people from homes and cars and other aggressive tactics. The operation in the deeply liberal Twin Cities has claimed at least one life: Renee Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, was shot by an ICE officer during a Jan. 7 confrontation.

On Friday a federal judge ruled that immigration officers cannot detain or tear gas peaceful protesters who are not obstructing authorities, including while observing officers during the Minnesota crackdown.

During a news conference Saturday, a man who fled civil war in Liberia as a child said he has been afraid to leave his Minneapolis home since being released from an immigration detention center following his arrest last weekend.

Video of federal officers breaking down Garrison Gibson's front door with a battering ram Jan. 11 become another rallying point for protesters who oppose the crackdown.

Gibson, 38, was ordered to be deported, apparently because of a 2008 drug conviction that was later dismissed. He has remained in the country legally under what’s known as an order of supervision. After his recent arrest, a judge ruled that federal officials did not give him enough notice that his supervision status had been revoked.

Then Gibson was taken back into custody for several hours Friday when he made a routine check-in with immigration officials. Gibson’s cousin Abena Abraham said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told her White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller ordered the second arrest.

The White House denied the account of the re-arrest and that Miller had anything to do with it.

Gibson was flown to a Texas immigration detention facility but returned home following the judge's ruling. His family used a dumbbell to keep their damaged front door closed amid subfreezing temperatures before spending $700 to fix it.

“I don’t leave the house,” Gibson said at a news conference.

DHS said an “activist judge” was again trying to stop the deportation of “criminal illegal aliens.”

“We will continue to fight for the arrest, detention, and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.

Gibson said he has done everything he was supposed to do: “If I was a violent person, I would not have been out these past 17 years, checking in.”

Associated Press writers Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Josh Boak in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed.

Garrison Gibson, a Liberian man who has lived in the U.S. for around three decades, shows reporters his shirt reading “Immigrants make America great” during a news conference Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Brook)

A Jake Lang supporter clashes with counterprotesters the March Against Minnesota Fraud rally near Minneapolis City Hall, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Jake Lang, center, who organized the protest March Against Minnesota Fraud, clutches his head as he leaves the rally near Minneapolis City Hall, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A Jake Lang supporter bleeds from his head as he is chased away by pro-immigration protesters Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A pro-immigration protester lifts up Jake Lang's vest after an altercation at the March Against Minnesota Fraud rally near Minneapolis City Hall, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

ADDS IDENTIFICATION: Garrison Gibson becomes emotional as he is arrested by federal immigration officers Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

ADDS IDENTIFICATION: Teyana Gibson Brown, second from left, wife of Garrison Gibson, reacts after federal immigration officers arrested Garrison Gibson, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Federal immigration officers prepare to enter a home to make an arrest after an officer used a battering ram to break down a door Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Garrison Gibson, a Liberian man who has lived in the U.S. for around three decades, shows a photo of his arrest on a t-shirt as he speaks with reporters during a news conference Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Brook)

Garrison Gibson, a Liberian man who has lived in the U.S. for around three decades, speaks with reporters during a news conference Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Brook)