Midnight Mania! Are You A Member Of ‘Platinum’ Nation?

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

People tend to think of Mike Perry as a wild brawler rather than smart businessman, but “Platinum” is ahead of the curve. Reasonably fresh off his “Fight of the Night”-worthy win over Alex Oliveira back in April, Perry announced over the weekend that he was creating “PMP (Platinum Mike Patreon),” alongside a host of giveaways for participants.

First and foremost, what the hell is a Patreon? Founded in 2013, Patreon is a website designed to empower content creators. Whether that be musicians, writers, YouTubers, or even fighters, it’s a way for fans to directly pay these creators for special access to videos, interviews, and all other types of content.

Perry is not the first of the MMA-sphere to join the trend of creating a Patreon, as writers and podcast hosts covering the sport have already built some substantial bases on the site. To my knowledge, he is the first fighter to do so, and he’s in a better position than most.

As dedicated followers of this article are likely aware, Perry posts a lot on Instagram. No fighter posts more sparring content, regardless of whether Perry looks sharp and dangerous or fatigued and off-balance, the footage goes up. He’ll also post more comedic content, usually involving his wife, the Platinum Princess. As a result, Perry has built quite the following for an unranked Welterweight, as his Instagram account currently has more than 300,000 followers.

Few can hope to be as charismatic, entertaining, or weird as Perry, but more fighters joining Patreon is very likely. It would be another revenue stream for athletes, a chance for fans to directly send their favorite fighters a few bucks. At the very least, it’s not as terrible a concept as Cameo — which already has quite a few fighters on its roster, if anyone has $75 bucks to spare for a Randy Couture shout out — but that’s a topic for another night.

Insomnia

Frank Camacho had a pretty amazing performance on Saturday night opposite Nick Hein, but this is even more impressive composure. In general, I think we’re all a bit harsh on fighters’ actions/words in the immediate aftermath of a knockout — things get blurry!

People give Paige VanZant a lot of crap for her modeling and general Instagram advertising, but she’s been given plenty of chances to stop fighting and has accepted none of them.

This is a huge amount of work done for a single tattooing session. Ouch!

I cannot find the original source for this art, but it’s awesome.

Please, dear readers, do not volunteer to be the man beneath the water bottle.

Dustin Poirier’s boxing improvements in the last two years or so have been incredible, and his bag work looks sharp ahead of his title unification bout with Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Slips, Rips, and KO clips

I considered dedicating a whole section to Andy Ruiz Jr. What an awesome win (and hilarious aftermath) for the first-ever Mexican Heavyweight champ!

Will we ever see a lead leg high kick KO in Heavyweight MMA?

Punching while a foe is kicking and vice-versa is always a nerve-racking moment. Neither man is in a good position to absorb the blow, so stakes are high!

Random Land

What does one have to do to put Jon Jones in contact with Drake?

Planning to make a trip to Thailand in 2020, but does anyone have advice on whether making it Laos while in the area would be worthwhile?

Music from the making of Midnight Mania! I listened to New Order’s 1983 debut album Power, Corruption, and Lies while writing today (among others), but rather than post a single song from that LP, I’ll poll Mania readers with the closest musical equivalent to the age-old “glass half-empty vs. glass half-full” personality test.

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