With the official announcement this past weekend by Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White, fighters competing at 125-pounds now have a new level to aspire too.
Before the division was added to the UFC, fighters would have to compete in Japan or as part of the Lemoore, California based Tachi Palace Fights promotion which emphasized the smaller fighters on their cards.
One of those fighters in particular, TPF flyweight champ Ian ‘Uncle Creepy’ McCall (11-2), is a direct benefactor of the UFC announcement, being named as one of the four fighters competing for the first UFC flyweight title.
McCall is scheduled to face former UFC bantamweight contender Demeitrious Johnson, while Joseph Benavidez will square off against Yasuhiro Urushitani, which will all expected to take place on March 4 at the Allphones Arena in Sydney, Australia.
“It’s the fight that I wanted,” McCall said of Johnson. “He’s accomplished so much lately that I want to go in there and make a statement and put on a good fight, and I know that fighting him will let me do that.”
“Tachi, they were the last stand for 125,” McCall said of the California-based promotion. “They were showcasing them, and I was kind of the torchbearer for the organization – or at least of the flyweight class.
“If it weren’t me, I’m sure it would be someone else. But right now, I feel like I’m the torchbearer for the weight class…. ”
“It was just a couple days (of knowing), so it’s not like it was a long ordeal,” he said. “But my head felt like it was going to explode because they were like, ‘Don’t tell anyone! Don’t even tell your wife! Don’t say anything to anyone!’
“I was shaking the whole time in the corner like one of my chihuahuas because they had me so scared to say anything.”
McCall is on a four fight win streak, and is 5-1 in his last six bouts. His last three wins have come under the Tachi Palace Fights banner with his last coming this past August where he beat Darrell Montague for the TPF flyweight title.
Check out the rest of the article with ‘Uncle Creepy’ at MMAjunkie.com