Midnight Mania! UFC Phoenix Is For Heavyweight’s Future

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight Welcome to Midnight Mania!
This weekend will (allegedly) see a clash between the long-departed Cain Velasquez, and one-time superstar in waiting Francis Ngannou…

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

This weekend will (allegedly) see a clash between the long-departed Cain Velasquez, and one-time superstar in waiting Francis Ngannou. Velasquez was considered a lock for greatest heavyweight of all time before injuries derailed his career. He lost to Fabricio Werdum at altitude in Mexico City, a performance that was akin to watching Bane dismantle Batman in the third Christopher Nolan movie. “You merely adopted exhaustion. I was born into it!” Werdum took the best shots Cain had to offer, and then tapped him when an exhausted Cain shot in, desperate to get top position. Ngannou’s first-ever loss had a similar feeling, as Stipe Miocic took his first-round aggression, then ground him down for four rounds as the hulking giant struggled to stand and breathe, much less fight back.

Since then, Velasquez beat the tar out of Travis Browne at UFC 200, and hasn’t fought since, while Ngannou lost a gunshy snoozefest to Derrick Lewis, then blasted Curtis Blaydes in a matter of seconds.

The thing is, Cain’s teammate Daniel Cormier, the current heavyweight champion, is retiring soon. He has between one and three fights left in him. Who will replace Cormier once he is gone? Aside from Stipe Miocic, the best candidates are probably the two men clashing this weekend, and their respective performances will tell us a lot about their future in this division.

Cain has the potential to assert himself the once-and-future king. Ngannou was Stipe Miocic’s toughest test; if Cain can pass the same test, we will have a gauge to measure him by. Have the years of injury and age finally caught up to him? Is he the same force that once smashed Brock Lesnar and dominated the division? It is impossible to know until we see him in the cage.

On the other hand, Cain is the perfect test for whether Ngannou learned his lessons from the Stipe loss. Although the fight showed us a lot of technical flaws, conceivably he could have won that bout had he not gone buckwild in the first round and used up his gas tank. Unfortunately, the Curtis Blaydes win told us nothing except that he realized he needed to get past the fear of engaging we saw in the forgettable Lewis performance. Unless he repeats the feat and flatlines Cain instantly, this fight will give us those answers, good or bad. If they are good, Ngannou is likely the division’s future. If they are bad, he could still become champion someday, but his window of opportunity could be pushed much further back.

The future of a division is riding on Sunday’s main event. Who emerges victorious will do so over themselves, as much as their opponent.

Insomnia

View this post on Instagram

l Much Hespec

A post shared by Because jitsu (@because_jitsu) on

Wing walking! Thank you, Derrick Lewis, for sharing this video with us.

Robert Whittaker is no dummy. While they aren’t the only MMA promotion in the world, the UFC owns something north of 85% of the market share, giving them a lot of market power that allows them to depress fighter wages more or less without consequence. At least they paid Kelvin Gastelum, though.

Combat sports this weekend are fun. MVP vs. Paul Daley will finally show us if MVP has the goods or not.

Woah, calm down dad

If the Avengers had her on their side Thanos would never have gotten all the Infinity stones.

Slick

This would have been better

We are going to have a lot of questions answered about Johnny Walker after he faces off with Misha Cirkunov at UFC 235

I love how unapologetically nerdy Israel Adesanya is.

Random Land

Firstly, this is cool, but secondly, stop scaring the octopus so much, maybe

Opportunity was supposed to last for 90 days, and made it 15 years. A dust storm probably covered her solar panels, and if she doesn’t have power when winter comes the cold will finish her, finally putting an end to an amazing journey.

Sleep well, Maniacs! A better tomorrow is always possible. Follow me on Twitter and Facebook @Vorpality

Midnight Mania! UFC Phoenix Is For Heavyweight’s Future

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight Welcome to Midnight Mania!
This weekend will (allegedly) see a clash between the long-departed Cain Velasquez, and one-time superstar in waiting Francis Ngannou…

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

This weekend will (allegedly) see a clash between the long-departed Cain Velasquez, and one-time superstar in waiting Francis Ngannou. Velasquez was considered a lock for greatest heavyweight of all time before injuries derailed his career. He lost to Fabricio Werdum at altitude in Mexico City, a performance that was akin to watching Bane dismantle Batman in the third Christopher Nolan movie. “You merely adopted exhaustion. I was born into it!” Werdum took the best shots Cain had to offer, and then tapped him when an exhausted Cain shot in, desperate to get top position. Ngannou’s first-ever loss had a similar feeling, as Stipe Miocic took his first-round aggression, then ground him down for four rounds as the hulking giant struggled to stand and breathe, much less fight back.

Since then, Velasquez beat the tar out of Travis Browne at UFC 200, and hasn’t fought since, while Ngannou lost a gunshy snoozefest to Derrick Lewis, then blasted Curtis Blaydes in a matter of seconds.

The thing is, Cain’s teammate Daniel Cormier, the current heavyweight champion, is retiring soon. He has between one and three fights left in him. Who will replace Cormier once he is gone? Aside from Stipe Miocic, the best candidates are probably the two men clashing this weekend, and their respective performances will tell us a lot about their future in this division.

Cain has the potential to assert himself the once-and-future king. Ngannou was Stipe Miocic’s toughest test; if Cain can pass the same test, we will have a gauge to measure him by. Have the years of injury and age finally caught up to him? Is he the same force that once smashed Brock Lesnar and dominated the division? It is impossible to know until we see him in the cage.

On the other hand, Cain is the perfect test for whether Ngannou learned his lessons from the Stipe loss. Although the fight showed us a lot of technical flaws, conceivably he could have won that bout had he not gone buckwild in the first round and used up his gas tank. Unfortunately, the Curtis Blaydes win told us nothing except that he realized he needed to get past the fear of engaging we saw in the forgettable Lewis performance. Unless he repeats the feat and flatlines Cain instantly, this fight will give us those answers, good or bad. If they are good, Ngannou is likely the division’s future. If they are bad, he could still become champion someday, but his window of opportunity could be pushed much further back.

The future of a division is riding on Sunday’s main event. Who emerges victorious will do so over themselves, as much as their opponent.

Insomnia

View this post on Instagram

l Much Hespec

A post shared by Because jitsu (@because_jitsu) on

Wing walking! Thank you, Derrick Lewis, for sharing this video with us.

Robert Whittaker is no dummy. While they aren’t the only MMA promotion in the world, the UFC owns something north of 85% of the market share, giving them a lot of market power that allows them to depress fighter wages more or less without consequence. At least they paid Kelvin Gastelum, though.

Combat sports this weekend are fun. MVP vs. Paul Daley will finally show us if MVP has the goods or not.

Woah, calm down dad

If the Avengers had her on their side Thanos would never have gotten all the Infinity stones.

Slick

This would have been better

We are going to have a lot of questions answered about Johnny Walker after he faces off with Misha Cirkunov at UFC 235

I love how unapologetically nerdy Israel Adesanya is.

Random Land

Firstly, this is cool, but secondly, stop scaring the octopus so much, maybe

Opportunity was supposed to last for 90 days, and made it 15 years. A dust storm probably covered her solar panels, and if she doesn’t have power when winter comes the cold will finish her, finally putting an end to an amazing journey.

Sleep well, Maniacs! A better tomorrow is always possible. Follow me on Twitter and Facebook @Vorpality