James Brydon

Follow fight-by-fight results for MMA events with Twitter. James will do live updates during all UFC events as well as many other promotions, including Canadian ones.

Sometimes in sports you can find inspiration for what you do in places you might not have expected.

Every once in a while I come across a sports crossover connection that makes me say, “Huh.” Like NHL commissioner Gary Bettman having a half-brother, Jeffrey Pollack, who is executive chairman of Professional Bull Riders (and up until this year was commissioner of the World Series of Poker.) Or finding out that three-time major champion golfer Padraig Harrington of Ireland is a distant cousin of former NFL quarterback Joey Harrington (as well as 1995 WSOP champion Dan Harrington.)

Yesterday was one of those days, with some personal importance. And some MMA connections.

I'm spending part of the week in London, Ont., for the Canadian Special Olympics Summer Games to support and watch my sister Sonia, who competes in rhythmic gymnastics for Quebec. Tuesday the opening ceremonies took place in the evening, but before I got to that, I decided to make it a full day of activities.

First off, I visited Adrenaline Training Centre, the MMA gym part-owned by UFC/WEC fighters Sam Stout and Mark Hominick. Stout was there preparing for his upcoming bout in October against England’s Paul Taylor, while Hominick dropped in before having to head to Toronto for the night. (He said his next fight will likely be in September and he expects his opponent to be Leonard Garcia, who said he’d be happy to accept the challenge put forth by Hominick.)

I also met Alex Gasson, the gym’s head of affairs and coaching (who spent time rolling on the mats with students as they learned some of the finer points of jiu-jitsu) as well as James Haourt, a former fighter and one of the head trainers. Haourt teaches a bit of everything including beginner’s kickboxing and women’s kickboxing. But he also teaches a kickboxing class for the intellectual challenged, supported by Hutton House in London. He currently does private lessons once a week with a guy named Tony. While none of those students will be competing at the Special Olympics this week -- there is no such event -- he says they really enjoy the training and the skills they pick up and can get pretty good at it.

The gym is a full mixed martial arts facility with everything a fighter needs to train and anything someone learning the sport could want (cage, ring, full weight room and loads of training mats). It has been open for almost two years now, and Haourt believes the number of people taking classes has doubled since. It seems everywhere you look these days, you can find evidence of the growth in popularity of MMA. (Now to just get it legalized in Ontario...)

Next I went to watch my sister practise on the campus of the University of Western Ontario, where the Games are taking place. After a dinner with other families of the Quebec athletes, it was time to head over to the TD Waterhouse Stadium (home of the Western Mustangs!) for the opening ceremonies.

The co-emcee for the festivities was Sportsnet’s very own Evanka Osmak, who has served on the board for Special Olympics Ontario. It had your typical parade of athletes (roughly 1,400 of them) representing 10 provinces and two territories, a handful of speeches from executives and government officials and plenty of musical entertainment.

The flag for the games was delivered live in the stadium by helicopter, which was a fun spectacle for many, but the bigger thrill appeared to come moments later, when the tactical rescue unit being used to drive the flag to the stage swung around the track in front of us and someone in my section yelled, “Hey, that’s Don Cherry!” Indeed the hockey icon was seated inside the vehicle, set to make a guest appearance and deliver a message of tribute to the athletes.

Following the ceremonies I joined Tom Wright, chairman of Special Olympics Canada, at the post-event reception, which was attended by many dignitaries and other invitees (including former Olympic gold medal-winning Canadian swimmer Mark Tewksbury, who serves on its board and has a unique perspective as a former Olympian.)

Wright is a man who is quickly becoming very familiar to Canadian MMA. His recent appointment a couple months ago as director of UFC Canada raised eyebrows, both within the MMA community and Special Olympics community (not to mention the CFL community, him being its former commissioner). At first glance, it doesn’t seem to jive, at least to those who are not fully familiar with MMA. Canadian football, Special Olympics and… cage fighting? But Wright put it best when describing the basic commonalities between them as he mingled at the reception. “They’re all about sports, they’re all about entertainment and they’re all about business.”

And with Special Olympics in particular it’s about people and relationships and bringing out the best in them. People across all sports can take inspiration from watching these particular athletes. It’s the spirit of perseverance, of overcoming challenges and of pure competition.

Of course I knew about Wright’s connection to both MMA and the Special Olympics beforehand, but many others are just learning it. Stout, for example, attended the ceremonies as a guest of Wright and said he loved the experience and hopes to be involved in other such ones in the future.

The UFC opened a dedicated office in Canada and Wright’s position was created in order to promote the UFC and the sport in this country. At the time Wright said one of his main efforts to that effect was to get its fighters involved in the community. On Tuesday, this was one of the ways he was doing that.

And these are the kind of crossover connections that make me say, “Yeah.”