‘Tank’ plans demolition job

How was Ultimate Fighting converted from ‘human cockfighting’ to a multi-million dollar brand? The only way to find out was by getting into the famed Octagon, suggested a brave Adrian Russell.

WHEN Tom ‘The Tank’ Egan from Newbridge, Co Kildare steps into a 6ft-steel cage in the new O2 arena tonight, he’ll clock in for his first day’s work on an unfamiliar shop floor.

But, as many school-goers this month ponder career paths and job options, surely none will, like the 20-year-old gaelgeoir, put the school of hardest knocks — the Ultimate Fighting Championship — top of their CAO form.

UFC will draw 10,000 Irish spectators to Dublin’s docklands this evening for what will be the biggest indoor sports event in Ireland this year. The huge TV following for the controversial sport and a well-stacked 10-bout card meant the event in the new 02 arena sold out almost immediately and will be broadcast live by Setanta Sports here and in the UK. The show will also be transmitted coast-to-coast on pay per view in the US and sold to over 120 nations worldwide.

If Egan is Thomas the Tank, then Marshall Zelasnik, UFC UK Division President is the Fat Controller.

He insists bloodthirsty Irish fight fans are in for an epic night. “The UFC brand of mixed martial arts is already the biggest indoor sport in the UK. We are now a major part of the sports scene in Britain and Ireland. That is not a matter of opinion, it is a fact evidenced by record breaking events after record breaking event. This is going to be the biggest fight night in Irish history,” he says.

The sport was not always this popular however. Once branded ‘human cockfighting’ by US Presidential candidate John McCain — the organisation was a lightening rod for criticism and controversy. It first staged fights in the early 90s which were ‘no holds barred’ in a bid to find who, essentially, was the toughest man alive.

The results were like the first gore-soaked 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan. The State of Nevada ultimately banned UFC; the equivalent of New Orleans outlawing jazz.

The music stopped and it looked like the game was up.

Enter Dana White. The former ultimate fighter bought the organisation and quickly flipped it on its head, imposing rules, introducing referees and changing the cage to the Octagon. Audiences and advertisers flocked to it and Nevada welcomed back a prodigal son to Sin City.

White also made Belfast-born Wayne McCullough an employee — his job title is ‘an official ambassador’.

Our Olympic boxing silver medal hero argues, expectedly, that the sport is safer than his own.

“In and around ‘93 it did have a bad rep. There weren’t rules — well there were a few — but it wasn’t like it is today,” he says. “But it’s changed now; it’s regulated. Nobody’s ever been hurt or permanently hurt so they can’t fight again and there’s nobody been killed. And I’m a boxer — how many boxers have you seen die or hurt badly?”

Egan will become the youngest man to climb into the trademarked Octagon — the famed eight-sided caged ring which was constructed in Dublin on Thursday. He’s determined to make the most of the four-fight deal he’s landed, starting against fellow rookie John Hathaway.

“Everything I do is geared towards this, getting into the UFC — this is how I want to make my living and obviously the long-term goal is to be a world champion.”

Egan’s focus is understandable when you realise — having previously made a career-high of €300 from an individual mixed martial arts fight — he’s now so close to Vegas he can hear the tap-tap-tap of Liza Minelli’s dancing.

Were Egan to put half a dozen or so victories together in his 77kg class he could be fighting a $1m world championship bout within a year or two. Not bad for someone who, while training for amateur fights until recently had to work in Smyth’s toy store. This certainly isn’t kids’ stuff anymore.

THE BILL is headlined by the meeting of Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson; the winner will do his chances of a world title shot the power of good. Franklin looks like the UFC gods cut him from granite and spirited him in the direction of the Octagon. He’s pay per view stuff and it’s little wonder he was recognised innumerable times in the expensive piece of real estate around Dublin’s financial district this week.

“I’ve done shows before where you’re the first in a new city and when that happens there’s a different kind of energy. It’ll be exciting and there’ll be some fans that’ll be fired up. I’ve been recognised quite a bit walking around on the streets and it’s always a little weird in a foreign country when you hear your name so, yeah, it’s an amazing reception and we’re looking forward to putting on a show for the Irish UFC fans.”

One man however who feels quite at home on these shores sounds like he was named after a particularly explosive cocktail. Marcus ‘The Irish Hand Grenade’ Davis has more ease tracing the many scars which map his battered 35-year old body than he does his Irish family. But he knows ‘his mother’s people’ — the McKinnons — are from Waterford. He half expected a call from a long-lost cousin looking for tickets this week, which he’d welcome.

Though Davis hasn’t heard from his relatives in the south-east, he insists he’s surrounded by family in the tight-knit travelling freak show that he’s part of.

“It’s a real community — like the WWE guys or maybe the circus. Even if you’re competing against each other you’re travelling together, you’re always around each other so I get along with everyone,” says the southpaw.

“It’s great that as a fighter, I punch my best friends in the face everyday; my training partners. They’re my best friends and I’m always hurting them. It’s just fitting that I become friends with everyone on UFC. That’s how I feel anyway; I know some guys need to make it a personal grudge thing but I personally don’t. I don’t need anger to fight; fighting is in me, that’s who I am. I’m just a fighter.”

So when the teeth are brushed from the canvas, the lights cool and dim and the sated and hoarse fans are already supping in the capital’s hostelries, Tom Egan will have tattooed his name onto UFC’s colourful body, becoming part of that most dysfunctional of families. Accompanied into the arena by ‘We Be Burning’ from Jamaican rapper Sean John, it’ll just be the start of another day at the office — good or bad — for the ultimate fighters.