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Welcome to Midnight Mania!
The federal government may have accepted Bobby Green’s name change, but his UFC 304 opponent Paddy Pimblett won’t follow suit. Pimblett doesn’t care that Green’s longtime moniker “King” is now his legal name. In fact, he thinks it’s a sign of mental decline following a couple bad knockout losses in recent years.
“No, his name is Bobby, lad,” Pimblett explained to MMA Junkie. “He was born Bobby, he was Christened Bobby, his mom and daddy call him Bobby. His name is Bobby. … The fact that he’s changed his name at nearly 40 years of age shows that CTE is real.”
He continued, “I do think it’s still affecting him because he got clipped with a few shots against Jim Miller, who’s not a big puncher … I think he’s a little bit chinny now. Not even just the Jalin Turner one, he got knocked out clean by Drew Dober as well a couple of months before that.”
The Dober knockout actually happened about a year prior to Green’s loss to Turner, but nobody can deny that the “Tarantula” dropped a hellish amount of damage on Green. It will be interesting to see if Pimblett tries to take advantage of Green’s potentially declined durability, however, because Green is historically rather difficult to drag to the floor.
UFC 304 is scheduled to go down in just a couple weeks on July 27 from Manchester, England, and the Lightweight contest is situated prominently on the main card. It’s an important fight for Pimblett, who will attempt to break into the 155-pound rankings by taking out No. 15-ranked Green and extending his UFC win streak to six. King, meanwhile, has won three of his last four bouts, most recently bloodying up Jim Miller in a decisive victory.
Insomnia
Alex Pereira used a bit of trickery to earn himself an addition $253k — a savvy veteran in every sense!
Alex Pereira reveals the story of how he convinced Dana White to give him a $303,000 performance bonus after his #UFC303 knockout over Jiri Prochazka
AlexPoatanPereira / YT pic.twitter.com/fUwx6CBTgN
— MMA Orbit (@mma_orbit) July 12, 2024
A kind of slap fight that I can get behind.
What a war pic.twitter.com/SiuXKKQ1Jr
— Bryan Battle (@BryanBattle10) July 10, 2024
Conor McGregor has been chirping at Khabib consistently for years, but I can’t remember the last time the trash talk went the other direction.
This rivalry will never end. pic.twitter.com/QG5XLFTJ0K
— Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) July 12, 2024
Brendan Allen and Nassourdine Imavov are the two Middleweight prospects-turned-contenders that often seem overlooked, but the winner should be in title shot discussion.
Nassourdine Imavov vs. Brendan Allen : le combat devrait se faire en co-main event de l’#UFCParis !
Let’s goooooo @imavov1.
(via @FightMinds) pic.twitter.com/RgiKl35nJy
— ActuMMA (@actu_mma) July 12, 2024
Definitely watch Cory Sandhagen vs. Umar Nurmagomedov at whatever your correct local time is.
Sean O’Malley makes so many height-based jokes you would think he’s not a Bantamweight.
Touch-pull-return demonstrated by a master:
Slips, rips, and KO clips
Beautiful combination to finish the fight.
HUGE KO
Liam Wilson bounces back from defeat to Oscar Valdez and delivers a brutal knockout to stop Youssef Dib in round 8 in Wollongong pic.twitter.com/dvjNWoprcj
— Tokker? (@ATokkers5) July 10, 2024
Monstrous physical strength on display in pretty much all of these wrestling exchanges.
EFC double-champ Igeu Kabesa runs through Humphrey Mulenga, tossing his larger opponent around before sinking the RNC in under 2 minutes. Easy work. And still EFC’s lightweight king. #EFC115 pic.twitter.com/ck3Jw5eb7L
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) July 11, 2024
Spinning to reset one’s stance after a kick is a known strategy, but I’ve never seen the spin off a shin-to-shin failed kick.
Joaquin Vargas just pulled off a walk off spinning back elbow KO on Marcos Saavedra in Bolivia to improve to 8-1. #Champion23 pic.twitter.com/YmYSYrhSxb
— Edwin (@staygoldedwin) July 11, 2024
Random Land
May require multiple watches to understand …
Midnight Music: Alternative rock, 1989
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.