Alaska Fighting Championship promoter Sarah Lorimer feels like the small-town basketball coach who learns Mike Krzyzewski wants to scout a few practices, or the parish priest who gets a call from the Vatican saying the Pope is coming to Sunday Mass.
"I have a musician friend who said 'It's like if Motley Crue showed up and watched my show,' " Lorimer said.
UFC president Dana White is coming to Anchorage for an AFC show in November.
White, who helped turned mixed martial arts into a mainstream sport as the head of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, will be looking for potential UFC fighters when he comes to Sullivan Arena next week for AFC 118.
"For him to come to our promotion, I can't even compare it to anything else," Lorimer said. "The god of mixed martial arts is coming to AFC. For the last 10 years, I've looked up to Dana White. I do what he does. It's awesome."
White and a television crew will attend Wednesday's fights for an episode of White's new reality program, "Looking for a Fight."
The potential stakes are huge: Fighters who put on a good show could walk away with a UFC contract.
Lorimer said AFC is one of several promotions that will be featured in the series, available for purchase at ufc.tv.
The premise of the show is simple: White and two others – longtime friend Nick "The Tooth" Gullo and former UFC champion Matt Serra – travel the country looking for undiscovered fighters.
"This is definitely the biggest opportunity in my pro career," said 24-year-old Zach Eastlick of Anchorage, a bantamweight fighter on Wednesday's card. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for guys up in Alaska. You will never get this opportunity again."
Eastlick, who works as a project manager for Circle Plumbing and Heating, will take on Jared Mazurek for the AFC bantamweight title. Four of the nine fights on tap are AFC championship fights.
Eastlick said the prospect of fighting in front of the UFC president has been inspiring.
"It elevates your game, it elevates your training, it elevates your drive," he said.
"I'm excited about the doors that might open after this. … I've had the opportunity to fight in lower promotions out of state, but this is the first time I've had, like, a tryout."
Eastlick (7-2 as a pro) and Mazurek (5-0) have never met in the octagon before. Eastlick thinks both men have a shot at making an impression worthy of catching White's attention, regardless of who wins and who loses.
"I don't think that winning is everything," he said. "It definitely adds to your chances, but as long as me and Jared go out there and fight our hearts out and put on an entertaining show, I think that's what Dana White is looking for."
Lorimer, who became one of the country's first female promoters when she took over AFC in 2007, said she thinks Anchorage and AFC were chosen for the show for two reasons.
"I think they think Alaska would be interesting," she said. "They're going to be going dog-sledding and stuff while they're up here."
Beyond that, the AFC has a decent track record. It's where Demetrious Johnson, the UFC flyweight champion from Washington, got his start with four straight wins via submission. And eight AFC fighters have earned UFC contracts since Lorimer bought the promotion, an average of one per year.
Lorimer said she's been a Dana White for years, calling herself "the ultimate fan girl." Next week will constitute a career highlight for her; for the fighters involved, it's an even bigger deal.
"These guys will never again get the opportunity to fight in front of the president of the UFC," Lorimer said. "He's going to be sitting there watching every minute of every fight, and they're gonna have the ability to show what they're made of and hopefully get picked up.
"If none of the guys put on a show, they're not gonna take anybody. Every guy needs to fight like it's the fight of his life."