A key player in the long-term history of MMA is being honored on Thursday night.
You've probably never heard of him. Almost nobody has.
In 1993, before the first UFC event, Jason Cussin came up with the design of the Octagon cage as well as the fighting surface.
And while different promotions have had different sizes and shapes of their cages, the fighting surface used almost universally in the sport was created by Cussin, according to Campbell McLaren, who was the man in charge of the early UFC shows.
McLaren, who now runs Combate Americas, an MMA promotion that is concentrating on Hispanic viewers and has a weekly Friday night time slot on powerhouse TV Azteca in Mexico, is honoring Cussin at its show at the Mana Wynwood in Miami, Fla.