Midnight Mania! ‘I Love The Media!’

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Power Slap has a seen a lot of controversy in its few short months of existence. Congress is pissed, ratings are not that impressive, and athlete pay is exactly as disappointing as one would expect. There’s been relatively little positive coverage of the event anywhere outside of UFC social media accounts, which have received backlash for posting more about slapping than promoting events like UFC 284.

Power Slap’s planned pay-per-view (PPV) debut has been demoted to some random app.

UFC President and Power Slap head honcho Dana White is not discouraged, however. He seems to be abiding by the “All publicity is good publicity” maxim, as he actually gave credit to media outrage for helping grow the sport further. In his opinion, people just want something to be angry about, especially if his name is attached. Specifically, White shouts out The New York Times after their recent critique article.

“The media has been incredible through this thing. If any of you saw the Chris Rock special that’s out, ‘selective outrage,’ that’s what’s happened with Power Slap. Selective outrage! Slapping has been around for 10 years! Logan Paul and Arnold Schwarzenegger had a slap event — unregulated, no medicals, no nothing — nobody said ‘Boo!’ There wasn’t one story written.”

He continued, “We do the right things. We go for approval. We test. We invest millions of dollars into it. We make it safe, go through the Nevada State Athletic Commission. And everybody is outraged, this is disgusting! This should never happen! Selective outrage. I love the media. You guys have helped me build this thing into a monster over the last eight weeks. I just want to thank you all. Especially the New York Times, you guys are amazing.”

Insomnia

Nobody ever seems exactly sure how to handle Petr Yan’s willingness to goof around combined with his likelihood of actually throwing a punch at any time.

Following up on Abubakar Nurmagomedov’s removal, he will be replaced by Jared Gooden.

Sparring with Alex Pereira looks about as miserable as one would expect.

A different style of wrestling:

I have seen many not-so-kind rumors about Fernand Lopez alleging all sorts of negative acts and overall incompetence.

The man who looked wildly emaciated making Flyweight vs. the Flyweight who retired because the judges keep screwing him!

It’s wild that UFC is continually photoshopping arms onto their champions even after it’s become a known thing on social media.

Sign me up for Derrick Lewis vs. Walt Harris!

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Marlon Moraes damn near killed Merab Dvalishvili in the first round, but “The Machine” really is inhuman.

Context stolen from a comment: “In Thai we call them “Muay Wat.” The most of that event are organized out of Bangkok and mostly in Isan province. And in this video is two young men who propose to fight without knowledges.”

A whole thread of retired One Championship strap-hanger Sam A showing off!

Random Land

Hold on tight.

Midnight Music: Hip-hop, 1993

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