RIO DE JANEIRO – When Brazilian special-forces officer Paulo Thiago was forced to withdraw from this weekend’s UFC 142 event, it only made sense that welterweight replacement Ricardo Funch stepped in to face Mike Pyle.
Sure, Funch isn’t quite as well-known as Thiago, but as a recently commissioned police officer in his current residence of Ludlow, Mass., he’s capable of carrying the shield.
“I was in the right place at the right time,” Funch recently told MMAjunkie.com.