(photo via UFC.com)
Most fans wouldn’t even know the name Brian Ebersole (47-14-1-1) before this past weekends UFC 127: Penn vs. Fitch event in Sydney, Australia. Those that did probably didn’t know the fighter had been on a seven fight win streak leading up to his fight with Chris Lytle or that he has 63 professional fights under his belt after last weekend.
In a recent article by Ben Fowlkes at MMAFighting.com, Ebersole detailed the long road he’s had to endure from fighting during his days at the Picture Eastern Illinois University to winning the $75,000 bonus check for “Fight of the Night” at UFC 127.
It’s an interesting story that details how he was suspended by the University for a fight he didn’t start, to leaving the United States for Australia to fight after the California State Athletic Commission suspended his license after the accused him of “carrying” a fight, all the way up to the point of getting called by the UFC to replace Carlos Condit at UFC 127.
Here are a few excerpts from the article.
One night a hockey player from some other school is on the Eastern Illinois campus visiting friends. Taking on this so-called ‘Champ’ starts to sound like a pretty good way to prove his manhood. Being young and mostly drunk, that doesn’t hurt his courage any either. He and his friends pursue Ebersole all night in the hopes of getting their shot. Ebersole tries to play it cool, but the later it gets the less cool he has in store. Finally he ends up face-to-face with the three of them, and he’s too annoyed to walk away any longer.
“Then the bigger of the three stepped in between the other two and hit me square in the eye,” said Ebersole, now 30 years old and a veteran of more than seventy pro fights. “We had a bit of a wrestle after that….”
If not for his ill-fated fight against Shannon Ritch in San Francisco in 2006, Ebersole might still be in California. But after wining the fight via submission, Ebersole was suspended along with Ritch when the CSAC accused them of working the fight.
“They claimed my fight with Shannon Ritch, well, to put it mildly they claimed that I carried Shannon too long and I didn’t finish him early enough. That was coming from the same people who sanctioned that fight. They had to approve that fight…”
But when the UFC tapped him to face Lytle in front of the same fans who had come to know and love him, Ebersole knew that the brass wasn’t exactly expecting him to win.
“I don’t think they expected me to do that well. I think they at least knew that they had a credible opponent, and they’ve known for a while that I was a credible athlete. They just didn’t think I was incredible, so they never tried to sign me or market me or give me a deal. I think I got lucky getting this fight. I was at the right place at the right time, and I’m more than happy with what I’ve done. This week has been an absolute dream.”