Midnight Mania! McGregor’s Tiger Tattoo Meets Real Tiger in Russia

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Conor McGregor has a couple animals he clearly admires. One of them is obviously the gorilla; the other is the tiger, which he has tattooed on his belly. In Russia on Vladimir Putin’s invitation to watch the World Cup final, he got to visit and feed a tiger firsthand.

Just as when Georges St. Pierre was charged by a wild gorilla, and had to adopt a subservient posture to escape, there was none of the swagger and braggadocio McGregor is often known for; ‘The Notorious’ was respectful and calm around the carnivore, feeding it a chunk of meat. He did, however, take the opportunity to get his belly tattoo in the frame with the real tiger. That’s a visual opp he couldn’t afford to miss.

McGregor’s likely Russian nemesis, current UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, famously grew up in the Caucasus mountains wrestling bears as a child. He was at the World Cup finale as well, but unlike when McGregor threw a dolly at a bus containing Khabib in Brooklyn, didn’t feel the need to find McGregor and confront him. Via MMAFighting.com:

“I thought I’d meet McGregor at the Luzhniki Stadium,” Nurmagomedov said (transcription and translation per Express.co.uk). “But even if we meet now, we still will not be able to find out who is stronger. If there was a cage in the middle of the arena, it would be more interesting. And now something to find out on the street and so on. We are not at that age and not in that position.

“It would be ideal if there were no one around. Or vice versa — to the full stadium, in the middle of the cage, and in it — we. In general, I see no reason to approach him now. We are hospitable people. Let the football look, enjoy Russia.”

Hopefully McGregor and Nurmagomedov will meet in the Octagon sooner rather than later. However, that won’t settle the important question: Who wins, a tiger or a bear?

And no, this sloth bear vs. Bengal tiger doesn’t officially count, but it is a pretty awesome fight.

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Insomnia

Speaking of the World Cup finale, this was absolutely masterful trolling from Daniel Cormier, who has never given any indication he follows soccer at all.

Classic, classic picture of Daniel Cormier in college.

Back on Conor McGregor, here he is doing what he does: attack buses

Nothing about visiting Russia looks fun (aside from the tiger), if I’m honest, even though McGregor purports to be enjoying himself in the gloom here.

Be careful in Russia, Conor.

Accurate

Excellent scarf position by the lion. Big cats require respect.

This is a pretty cool poster. I spent several minutes trying to identify some of these fighters.

I’m a huge fan of Stipe Miocic, but I’ve never understood the logic behind immediate rematches for champions. It has never made any kind of sense to me. Miocic is right to ask for one, but if you lose in decisive fashion, getting back in the ring immediately with the same person is almost never compelling to me as a fan.

I love seeing what fighters drill turn up in the fight

You can see the scenarios where he would plausibly use these techniques playing out in Tony Ferguson’s head in real time. He truly is El Cucuy.

Cris Cyborg and Gabi Garcia are the perfect people to teach girls self-defense.

Look at this melodramatic wrestler, just doing the most out there on the mat.

Israel Adesanya reveals that Alex Volkanovski suffered an injury- it seems to his knee- before his gutsy and impressive win over Darren Elkins.

This is a great meme from Yves Edwards

Anthony Pettis called out Al Iaquinta and Nate Diaz over the weekend

Best self-defense lesson ever

Dennis Bermudez was pretty blown away by the judges’ decision to award the bout to Rick Glenn.

The judges were a running joke on the night

Pretty accurate depiction of Sage Northcutt

Al Iaquinta with the genius matchmaking call

Niko Price made history with his unprecedented hammerfist knockout from the bottom this weekend

This was funny- Blagoy Ivanov just decided to rest for a second against the cage

You spin me right ‘round…

Not sure what Mendes was doing here but definitely going to swear by it now.

Weird things happened in Shamrock FC too

This appears to have been a real event that happened

Pure unbridled skill

It happens more often than it should

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Slips, Rips, and KO Clips

This was, with the possible exception of Niko Price’s hammerfist, the most arresting knockout of the weekend

Can’t wait to see Manny Pacquiao parlay this win into a deathmatch against Vasyl Lomachenko

This hurts me just to watch

It sucks to see Kevin Ross lose; in a very oblique way, he had a significant impact on my life by recommending a book that ended up influencing my choice of major in college.

Innovation at it’s finest by Ilima-Lei Macfarlane

Look at the bodywork in this body of work

Chokes

Great rhythm disruption in this Sumo match

There is a ton of tactical expertise that goes into Sumo

Great reversal here

Normally you can tell who is going to win a few moments before they do. Not this match.

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Podcasts and Video

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Random Land

Perfectly normal first date stuff here

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