It’s not very often in MMA both fighters win, but that was the rare case in a recent bout in Great Falls, Mont.

Justin Jaynes wasn’t the announced winner on Sept. 21, though he walked away one.

That night at a Fusion Fight League event, Jaynes faced off with longtime MMA super fan Bryan Chapel, who “finished” the UFC veteran midway through Round 2.

Chapel is a 46-year-old man with an intellectual disability who has become a pillar of his local Montana community. He works as a bagger at an Albertsons grocery store. A chance encounter between Jaynes and Chapel couldn’t have come at a more coincidental time.

“It was kind of a weird thing,” Jaynes told MMA Junkie on Friday. “I was at home, just like any normal night. I’m watching Netflix just like anybody else would be. I came across the movie called ‘Peanut Butter Falcon.’ It has Shia Labeouf in it. It’s a really good. This kid who has Down syndrome runs away from a hospital that he’s staying at, and he comes across Shia Labeouf, who is kind of like a vigilante. They end up becoming buddies. The guy is like, ‘It’s my dream to become a professional wrestler.’ Shia Labeouf essentially trains him. In the movie, he has his first wrestling match and it’s the greatest thing ever. Now, mind you five days later, I meet Bryan.”

Chapel’s dream has long been to compete against a UFC athlete, so when the two met at an afterparty for an event Jaynes was commentating, the wheels were put in motion.

“I go to get paid, and I meet Bryan,” Jaynes said. “Bryan and I are talking about how he wants to fight and he trains and this and that. It’s his dream to fight a UFC fighter and someone who’s been in the UFC, not just a fighter. He said specifically a UFC fight.

“The promoter, Terrill (Bracken), he’s like, ‘Well, you know he fights in the UFC?’ He’s like, ‘We should fight sometime.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, we should do it.’ Terrill’s got this crooked look on his face. Bryan walks away, and I’m like, ‘Terrill, this is something we can really put together.’”

Incase u missed my fight last weekend ❤️ pic.twitter.com/poYn2w7lHM

— Justin Jaynes (@JustinJaynesMMA) September 25, 2024

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For as long as he can remember, Jaynes has aspired to be a WWE wrestler, though his biggest athletic successes came during his five-fight stretch in the UFC. The opportunity to take bumps and sell judo throws (which he did emphatically during one sequence in the fight) while making someone’s life better was too much to turn down.

Chapel defeated Jaynes early in the second round with strikes and jumped with joy, both hands pumping to the sky, after the stoppage came. Jaynes had a flash back, as the elation-filled celebration played out, to an event with much different circumstances – but all the same feelings.

“I experienced the greatest moment of my life when I knocked Frank Camacho out,” Jaynes said. “When Bryan gets up and the referee jumps in and waves his hands and Bryan starts jumping up in the air and throwing his hands up in the air, I can relate to that moment. If anybody ever has the chance to give somebody that moment, help them do that.

“… My UFC career didn’t go how I thought it was going to go. It didn’t go how I wanted it to go. I felt like I was put in unfortunate circumstances. But I did have the opportunity. If there’s anything positive I can do to help people feel how I felt on June 20, 2020. That’s what my main goal is now.”

Image via Fusion Fight League

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That night, the goal was certainly achieved by Jaynes, who said he was approached in the back by a tearful Chapel after the match.

“I went back in the dressing room, he’s crying in the back,” Jaynes said. “He comes up to me and he puts his arms around me. He’s like, ‘I’m so sorry I had to beat you up so bad, but this was the best day of my life.’”

That’s how Jaynes knew while Chapel was declared the winner – the true result was a double victory.

“That’s worth his weight in gold to me, man.”

The man charged with intentionally killing a 70-year-old motorcyclist Tuesday in a road rage incident near Belfry appeared in court in Cody, Wyoming, on Friday in two different hearings for two different crimes.

Michael Gambale, 47, lived in a Cody up until the time of an incident last year when he was arrested. He asked in court to waive extradition and return to Montana.

He now lists a Billings address for mailing. 

Neighbors say he kept to himself and he was fairly quiet.

Carbon County Attorney Alex Nixon alleges that Gambale crashed his car into a motorcycle intentionally, killing a man on Highway 72 just south of Belfry on Tuesday.

Gambale faces charges of one count of deliberate homicide and three counts of attempted deliberate homicide for attempting to run other motorcyclists off the road.

A Park County, Wyoming, district judge agreed with the prosecution’s recommendation of a $1 million bond for the Montana case.

Gambale faced another complaint from the county attorney that he wasn’t following the orders of his probation stemming from a different case.

Revis White, Gambale’s attorney, said the prosecution Gambale was not reporting to the Veterans Administration in Sheridan, about his medication.

“That’s what they believed, but nobody followed up with anything since February,” White said.

White argued that it’s possible for Gambale to have not reported to the VA, but he also took his medications.

Gambale was and will continue serving a probation sentence for an incident that happened in November of 2023.

He pleaded no contest to shooting arrows up to 350 yards onto the runway of the Cody Airport.

Court documents state that the bolts were short thick arrows used with crossbows and air bolt guns and potentially could cause damage to aircraft tires.

Gambale was arrested on a probation violation on Sept. 17 and released on bond just days prior to the road rage events.

His neighbors say they saw him pacing along the fence the day of the airport incident.

They say he served in the military, was quiet and needed help.

Soon he will be in Montana.

“He will be incarcerated at least short term in Carbon County and so for intents and purposes, the Wyoming case is effectively done,” Revis said. “It’s certainly the small piece of the puzzle at this point.”

Republican Tim Sheehy has built up a steady polling lead against Democratic Senator Jon Tester in what may become the most important Senate race of the 2024 election.

Montana, usually a ruby-red state, is home to one of the most competitive Senate elections of the cycle. Tester, a centrist Democrat who has served as senator since 2006, has outrun other Democrats in the state in the past, and the party’s majority may hinge on his ability to win in November.

But a flurry of recent polls showing Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL officer and businessman, in the lead has sparked concerns about whether he can win in Montana this year. Turnout is expected to be high in a state former President Donald Trump will almost certainly win. Montana’s history of ticket-splitting has also ebbed in recent years.

While Sheehy has benefitted from strong polling numbers, Tester still holds a fundraising advantage.

So far this campaign, Tester has raised about $43 million, while Sheehy has raised nearly $14 million, according to data from the Federal Elections Commission (FEC). Meanwhile, Tester has spent more than $32.6 million, while Sheehy has spent over $10.6 million, the nonprofit OpenSecrets reported.

At the end of June, Tester had about $10.9 million in the bank, compared to $1.7 million for Sheehy, according to the FEC. Fundraising is crucial for any Senate candidate, but Montana is a smaller, generally less expensive state with fewer media markets than other key Senate races in states like Pennsylvania or Texas.

The amount of money both parties pour into the race speaks to its importance this year. Democrats currently hold a 51-49 Senate majority and are expected to lose at least the seat vacated by West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin.

This means Democrats must win every other seat they currently hold or flip one elsewhere to retain their majority in what has been viewed as a particularly challenging map in November. Montana is considered the tipping point for Senate control, with Ohio being another Democratic-held seat in a Republican-leaning state viewed as a potential GOP flip.

Tester continued to outraise Sheehy in the second quarter, bringing in $10.5 million to Sheehy’s $5.3 million, according to the Helena-based Independent Record.

Outside PACs have also spent tens of millions of dollars on the race, according to OpenSecrets.

GOP-supporting PACs have spent more than $13 million on advertisements supporting Sheehy and more than $30 million opposing Tester. Conversely, Democratic-leaning PACs have spent $3.5 million in support of Tester and nearly $31 million opposing Sheehy, according to the nonprofit.

The Last Best Place PAC, reported by HuffPost to be affiliated with Democratic leadership, has been the top outside spender in the race, pouring in $19 million. Meanwhile, the GOP-aligned More Jobs, Less Government PAC spent $18.8 million on the election, according to OpenSecrets.

Tester spokesperson Monica Robinson told Newsweek on Friday that the senator is “no stranger to tough races.”

“He’s won three in a row because he has a strong coalition of support across the state, including independent voters and Republicans, and he has a record of delivering for Montana. Montanans know that the dirt farmer from Big Sandy is the best choice to defend Montana – not the multimillionaire out-of-stater Tim Sheehy, who doesn’t understand our way of life and is changing Montana for the worse,” Robinson said.

Newsweek also reached out to the Sheehy campaign for comment via email.

FiveThirtyEight’s polling aggregate gave Sheehy a 3.7-point advantage over Tester on Thursday following weeks of strong Republican polling in the state.

An RMG Research/Napolitan Institute survey conducted among 491 likely voters from September 12 to September 19 showed Sheehy up seven points (50 percent to 43 percent).

That pollster showed Tester with a lead as recently as last month, with an August 6 to August 14 poll among 540 registered voters showing Tester up five points (49 percent to 44 percent).

A Fabrizio Ward/David Binder Research/AARP poll, which surveyed 600 likely voters from August 25 to August 29, showed Sheehy up six points in a head-to-head race (51 percent to 45 percent).

Elsewhere, an American Pulse Research & Polling/KULR-TV poll showed Sheehy with a 6-point lead over Tester (51 percent to 45 percent). It surveyed 538 registered voters from August 10 to August 12.

Sheehy, endorsed by Trump, has faced scrutiny after a Native American news publication released audio recordings allegedly of Sheehy using stereotypes about Indigenous people. His spokesperson told the Associated Press, “What folks are insinuating about him, that’s just not who he is.”

Following the spate of polls showing Sheehy with a lead, Democrats announced plans for new investments in the Florida and Texas Senate races this week, suggesting they may see the Montana race as increasingly out of reach.

Even though Republican incumbent Senators Ted Cruz and Rick Scott have been viewed as favorites, recent polls showed the states could be closer than Montana as democratic challengers Representative Colin Allred and former Representative Debbie Mucarsel-Powell gain ground.

The Cook Political Report rates Montana’s Senate race as “Lean Republican,” meaning it is “considered competitive,” but the GOP “has an advantage.”

Sabato’s Crystal Ball also reclassified the race from “toss-up” to “Lean Republican” on September 6, with forecaster Kyle Kondik writing that “history and recent trends are just not on Tester’s side.”

“He is one of a relatively small number of partisan outliers in either chamber of Congress, holding a Senate seat that the other party won by 16 points in the most recent presidential election,” Kondik wrote. “Many of Tester’s red-state Democratic colleagues have lost or retired in recent years, and it is a credit to his abilities that he has won 3 Senate elections in a state that is otherwise clearly Republican.”

Update 9/27/24, 5:43 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Monica Robinson.