When Cory Garbrandt walks to the Octagon on Saturday night to meet Henry Briones in a bantamweight bout at UFC 189, he'll have a tag team partner making the walk with him.
Maddux Maple, a nine-year old cancer survivor from Garbrandt's Ohio hometown, made a pact with the fighter: Maple would give cancer a beatdown; and when Garbrandt made it to the UFC, Maple would make the Octagon walk with him.
Maple lived up to his end of the pact; and Garbrandt is doing the same. The UFC has approved letting Maple, who has been in remission for nearly a year, come out to the cage with Garbrandt.