Midnight Mania: Faint, Flex, OnlyFans

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

UFC Bantamweight prospect Ailin Perez (10-2) didn’t look so good on the scale earlier on Friday (Sept. 27, 2024) at the official weigh-ins for UFC Paris. The Argentinian talent missed weight by 1.6 pounds, and she could barely managed to step up onto the scale … but still did a shaky arm flex! It was an ugly scene, but in classic UFC fashion, her fight opposite Dariya Zheleznyakova will continue unabated aside from a fine.

Fighters missing weight isn’t terribly uncommon, and even collapsing in the attempt happens every couple years. This time around, however, there’s a bit of irony involved. Back in July, Tracy Cortez really struggled to make weight for her main event opportunity against Rose Namajunas, ultimately cutting some of her hair to hit the mark.

Perez criticized the (ultimately successful) move online, writing, “Wow [Tracy Cortez] you really had to cut your hair to make weight. You were gifted an amazing opportunity to be a main event versus a former UFC champ and you barely made it. LOL.”

Well, Cortez didn’t forget the slight. On X, she clapped back at Perez’s weight miss with a couple of tweets, recognizing the overall irony of Perez missing weight after talking trash just a few months ago. She wrote, “Y’all wont catch me talking sh-t here on social media BUT my oh MY how the tables have turned 136.6 lol.”

She also added, “The [Only Fans] will help you with that 20% deduction [to Perez’s fight purse].”

Perez enters UFC Paris having won three in a row to score the No. 15 spot at 135-pounds. She’s perhaps better known for her viral twerking videos, wild fight week brawls, and financially successful OnlyFans account. Based on this video from after the weigh-ins with newly crowned champion Merab Dvalishvili, Perez isn’t too upset by the whole situation.

Insomnia

Conor McGregor with a fiery rant in response to Ilia Topuria’s recent comments …

“Preparation for the upcoming fight has begun.” Shavkat title shot confirmed?

One former One Championship athlete claiming shady behavior from the promotion. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire?

Talented young knockout artists Mairon Santos and Kevin Vallejo have made the matchmaker’s job easy by booking their own fight.

Every time I see a Jiri training clip now, I think about how badly I want to see him fight Dricus Du Plessis. It just sounds so hilarious!

A quick check in on Bryce Mitchell … I generally make it a point to watch all the videos in these posts in full, but I lasted about 30 seconds here.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Professional boxing culture is so, so much colder than MMA culture.

Red shorts’ high chin gave me a bad feeling immediately.

I’ve never been any good at it personally, but I love the double low kick technique (even if blue seems underprepared).

Random Land

A cool frame of reference.

Midnight Music: Not a hot take, hidden gem, or controversial pick by any means, but …. here’s an all-time great guitar riff.

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