Midnight Mania! Video: ‘Suga’ Submitted By Danaher Brown Belt

https://www.instagram.com/sugaseanmma/

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

There is a great deal of crossover between jiu-jitsu and MMA. Some of UFC’s premier submission fighters were first quite accomplished in competitions like the biennial Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) tournament or the jiu-jitsu worlds, where they made their names and brought about hype into the cage.

Demian Maia, for example.

On the other side of the equation, many fighters have tried their hand at local jiu-jitsu competitions over the years, and some of them have gone on to be quite competitive at the higher levels. Long story short, it shouldn’t be a surprise if someone at a local NAGA tournament has a bit of MMA training also.

Sean O’Malley may be known as a striker, but he’s grappled competitively several times in the past, notably choking out Takanori Gomi while representing team UFC in the Quintet Ultra event. This weekend, however, O’Malley found himself against an ace in the final match of the day, forced to submit by John Danaher brown belt Robert Degle via heel hook.

Genuinely, there’s nothing to be ashamed of for “Suga” here. First and foremost, there’s no point in taking any chances with a heel hook in an event that he’s not being paid to compete in — O’Malley needs his ACL for fighting!

Additionally, Degle is no average brown belt. He’s part of the infamous Danaher Death Squad, the more dominant force in jiu-jitsu right now who specialize in destroying legs, and he’s coached at Evolve MMA as well. As Degle wrote in his caption, hopefully the experience will indeed push O’Malley forward an extra notch.

Shameless Self-Promotion

Fight week is here! So far, 47 people have entered the banner raffle/contributed to my fight camp, which I believe is my highest amount of names gathered yet by a fair margin … and during COVID no less! I’ve done my best to send a personal thank you to everyone, but in case I did miss anyone in the chaos of it all: the support is hugely appreciated, thank you!

I’m keeping the name list open until fight day, so for anyone reading who enjoys my writing and would like to support/enter the raffle, $5 or more puts your user/nick/real name on the banner. I have Venmo (AndyLRichardson), PayPal ([email protected]), and a GoFundMe.

HERE is the PPV stream link for anyone interested. As always. I will also do a write up on my experience ASAP after the bout.

Insomnia

Though I would also be down with the Jorge Masvidal match up, this is the fight to make for “Chaos.”

Speaking of Masvidal, I appreciate this highlight of his head movement. “Gamebred” has been slick long before the fame!

Gilbert Burns is a man of many talents.

There might be a reason why Khamzat Chimaev is so bold on Twitter while more quietly confident in reality …

Randy Costa celebrated his slick head kick knockout win in style.

Welcome to Israel Adesanya fight week!

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Caught clean while on one leg …

The ol’ left-right-left-right repeat tends to work well when the opponent is defensive and on the fence.

Calf slicer! Someday, submissions from the single leg back control will grow more present.

Random Land

I hope this is real, because we all need some joy right now.

Midnight Music: This video absolutely counts as my song choice for the night.

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.