Midnight Mania! Bellator looks to book Michael Page vs. Paul Daley

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight

Welcome to Midnight Mania! Tonight we preview UFC Fight Night 104 a bit, see some of the .GIFs from Lion Fight tonight, look forward to the newly announced Paul Daley vs. Michael Page in May, and enjoy our fill of knockouts, submissions, and more, because the weekend is here.

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Insomnia

This looks fun: Michael “Venom” Page is rumored to be fighting Paul “Semtex” Daley sometime in May, a natural fit for a London card. Finally, Page gets a high level challenge, and it’s against one of the most powerful strikers at welterweight. What a matchup.

Who will be going to sleep there? I predict a battle of the flying knees:

… or possibly a boring decision. Who knows.

Don’t sleep on UFC Fight Night 104. It all goes down tomorrow night (catch our live coverage here), and despite lacking in name value it features nothing but action matchups. The main event in particular has the potential to be Fight of the Year– both Dennis Bermudez and “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung have been in several legendary scraps- Bermudez vs. Grice, Bermudez vs. Stephens, Bermudez vs. Brandao, Jung vs. Poirier, and Jung vs. Garcia 1 and 2 were all ridiculously entertaining fights.

“The Korean Zombie” is capable of finding very creative ways to bid you good night:

This isn’t even one of the fights I mentioned, and it still rocks:

The first Garcia-Jung fight had more action, but this one was completely unique: it’s the one where “Korean Zombie” hit the legendary twister submission, still the only one of its kind in UFC history.

The Co-Main event, the War of the Photogenic, also has a high Violence Potential Quotient (VPQ). If you don’t know about Alexa Grasso yet, then get to know her. She’s widely considered the best new prospect in the women’s strawweight division. At 23 years old, with her talent and good looks, she has all the potential to become a star in her native Mexico as well. Felice Herrig, on the other hand, was Paige VanZant before Paige VanZant, and although she doesn’t go out of her way as much to market herself based on her looks these days, she remains an exciting fighter and a good test for young Grasso.

Looks like all that Twitch.com gametime is paying off for the only UFC flyweight champion in history. Mighty Mouse landed himself a sponsorship role in For Honor, a game involving fighting… but with sword and steel rather than fists and chokes. Either way, looks like Johnson is a handful.

Another fighter who is a big gamer is Invicta FC champion Angela “Overkill” Hill. She brings her nerdiness to the weigh ins with cosplay-level outfits. Even with the Reebok ban in place, she still managed to pull off a convincing Street Fighter impression here.

This will be a fun one. Hill has absorbed some of Dominick Cruz’s style since moving to Alliance MMA, but will she be able to keep Jessica Andrade from swarming?

Not the first time Hill has dressed up as a Street Fighter character:

Esther Lin for Invicta FC

Justin Golightly brought this up in the replies, which I had never seen before:

And, speaking of Alliance MMA fighters, Jeremy Stephens is looking slick on the pads… but what, exactly, is that head bobbing at the beginning??

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Slips, Rips and KO Clips

Lion Fight 34 went down tonight and it had some explosive moments.

I love spinning elbows. This had a similar setup to that “Korean Zombie” backfist:

No question where this kick landed:

Counter kicking isn’t something you see often in MMA, but here’s what it looks like at an elite level:

Here’s another look:

Regional MMA from this morning:

This is scary

This is REALLY FREAKING SCARY

Reffing is a difficult job but a bad ref can make this sport a lot scarier.

Or funnier:

Sweet cream and sugar, this is a nice slip and counter:

I swear half these articles come from Grabaka Hitman’s timeline, but is this a man or a unibrowed wolf?

Savate has always been a fascinating sport

This list is an excellent example of why martial arts often fail on the street- most of the time fights in the real world- not counting “street fights” that have informal rules and are fought for status- just come down to who lands the first punch. Your belt rank doesn’t usually matter much if you eat that first shot flush.

What an evocative picture. Great photo art by Ryan Loco.

Sage Northcutt is at it again- this time with Max Holloway. He enjoys punching this mascot a little too much IMO.

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Random Land

He must have balance this good:

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Stay woke, Maniacs!