“I’ve really been trying to get this career going, get it really going, and it’s kind of hard on the scene,” he said. “So I’ve been working real hard and I was just telling myself, hey, don’t worry, don’t stress, life is great. Keep pushing it. You’re getting so much better and just be calm. So I was still in a good place. I had my family and my supporters that knew one day, even if it wasn’t this week, that I was going to make it. So it was pretty nice to actually get in there and get it done.”
McGhee more than got it done. Looking like someone who wasn’t told on fight week that he was supposed to experience the first-time UFC jitters, McGhee fought like an old pro against Newson before submitting him in the second round. It was quick, exciting, clean, and not bad for someone who wasn’t scheduled to fight anyone four days before. It was a roll of the dice, for sure, for “The Maniac,” but he had no hesitation when offered the chance of a lifetime.
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“I told my two oldest because they got out of school and I’m getting everything ready to go jump on the plane and I let them know, ‘Hey, I just wanted to let you guys know I have to leave this weekend and I know you guys aren’t going to be happy about that,’” said McGhee when asked about breaking the news to his teenage kids, two of the four he has with his wife Amanda. “They looked at me like, ‘Oh man, here we go again. You’re leaving again.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I got to go fight in the UFC.’ And they both just went crazy. My son was on crutches and he’s tripping over himself. It was pretty funny.”
And more satisfying than he could have imagined. It was a lesson to his entire family that if you work hard and persist, good things happen.
