*By Conor White*
Cody Garbrandt won the biggest fight of his life in December 2016 when he became the UFC Bantamweight champion.
He was motivated, in part, by the fight his young friend Maddux Maple showed against leukemia.
"He's had such an impact on me," Maple, 11, said of Garbrandt. "He helped me go through cancer, the rough time I was going through, and I don't know what I would do without him."
Garbrandt and Maple met in 2011, when Maple was just five years old and ravaged by the effects of chemotherapy. Garbrandt, who hadn't been signed by the UFC yet, promised Maple he would win a UFC championship belt if Maple beat cancer.
In 2015, Maple's leukemia went into remission.
"I was battling my own demons, and he helped me with a lot of those," Garbrandt said Tuesday in an interview with Cheddar. "Early on, with the decision to chase history, he helped me chase this goal and stay motivated and stay focused on the task at hand and with his battle and what he was able to do, he had a big impact on my life and a was a huge motivating factor in making it to the top."
Garbrandt is telling his and Maple's story in the new book, "The Pact".
With the pact completed and his cancer in remission, is Maddux Maple planning to follow his friend into the octagon?
"No, I actually want to be a childhood cancer doctor," Maple said. "That's what I went through, so I went to help people who go through what I went through."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-fight-of-their-lives).
Naz Aletaha, head of esports partnerships for Riot Games, said that the "priceless" experiences with new global sponsor Mastercard will start with the world championships in October, offering premium content and behind the scenes access to the biggest event for esports lovers.
Mastercard, seeing a market opening in the skyrocketing popularity of esports, signed a deal to become first global sponsor for Riot Games' "League of Legends." Raja Rajamannar, chief marketing and communications officer for Mastercard, said the company will become exclusive payment service provider for the game. The deal represents the largest mainstream sponsorship thus far in the esports world.
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As the online gaming world continues to boom, professional sports organizations are working to marry the online and physical sports world. Hugh Weber, president of the New Jersey Devils, said that there is a way for live esports events to be compelling enough to translate to ticket sales.
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Chris Raybon, senior editor at The Action Network, breaks down the best bets for sports fans heading into Week 2 of the NFL Season.
The company's recent growth on the back of a newly invigorated gaming segment is only the beginning, according to president and CEO Bracken Darrell. He said in an interview on Cheddar that esports could become "the biggest sport in the world," and Logitech will be there as its top hardware provider.
If you had any lingering doubts that eSports had gone mainstream, they would have been erased when the North American League of Legends Summer Split took over the Oracle Arena ー home to the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors. Cheddar was there for the last stop before the World Championships in South Korea next month.
Bettis, known as "The Bus" when he was an unstoppable running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, voiced support for the NFL player protests but also said he thought the league was "doing the right thing" in a tense situation.
Serena Williams's altercation with a chair umpire during the U.S. Open final was just the latest example of women being treated differently than their male counterparts in the sport. But whether things change by the Australian Open in January, said the Washington Post's Cindy Boren, is hard to say.
