Midnight Mania! Arianny Celeste Fires Back At Khabib, ‘You Will Respect Me’

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Just about two weeks ago, retired UFC Lightweight kingpin Khabib Nurmagomedov — now the head of his own promotion, Eagle FC — was asked why he chose not to have ring girls at his event. Nurmagomedov deemed them “the most useless people in martial arts,” and he expressed a discomfort with their presence.

Nurmagomedov was expressly clear that these were his own personal feelings and that everyone has a right to their own opinion, but it should not be a surprise that there was at least some backlash. For the most part, any adverse reactions were restricted to memes and jokes online, but longtime UFC ring girl Arianny Celeste recently released a public statement via Instagram.

“I’ve work over 15 years in this industry and learned it’s easier just to simply NOT CARE,” Celeste wrote. “For 15 years we have been more than just ring girls – we have dedicated time in promoting UFC and showing love and time to our die hard fans through touring the world and personal appearances. And while the world is very different right now, I can still feel that energy and love every time we have a show with an audience.

“It’s taken me 15 years of hard work, dedication, and time to be:

• A bad ass independently wealthy female.
• A real estate investor and owner of not just 1 but 3 homes/properties one located in LA -which is expensive AF .
• and a female who is not afraid to take risks and build for my future.

You can call us useless, but to people like me who have worked this hard, it slips right off my shoulders. My life is too good to be unhappy. You don’t have to like me, but you will respect me. Last but not least, please tell me why reporters and have nothing better to talk about than the ring girls? There has to be way better things to ask about!!

Next subject.”

This is not the first time Celeste has taken a stand opposite a UFC champion, but it’s likely her most wordy rebuttal yet! Given that Celeste will continue to rake in the dough promoting UFC while Khabib has no real reason to change how he runs his own promotion, this is most likely the end of this specific bit of drama … Hopefully.

The Return Of Shameless Self-Promotion

Two weeks into the banner promo, and we have 69 names on the banner! We are totally on track to break the record (80), and I’m super grateful! Either Saturday or Sunday is likely the cutoff date to join the team, so time is short.

As with all my pro fights, I raise funds to cover camp costs/actually make a profit via the fight banner. $5 or more gets your name/screen name/nickname on the fight banner, and it enters you into a raffle to win the banner itself. Payment options include venmo: AndyLRichardson (1572), PayPal, or the latest GoFundMe page. Complete details are HERE!

And, for those that don’t care for my fight career and its associated e-begging, all the coming Midnight Manias will have the same amount of content as usual. Simply skip this section each night and it’s like nothing happened!

Insomnia

Is Khamzat Chimaev the answer to Darren Till’s wrestling woes? Personally, I thought his takedown defense itself looked decent (he defended at a reasonable percentage), but he looked majorly unaccustomed to actually being beneath a full-sized Middleweight wrestler.

Speaking of Derek Brunson, he’s giving the Middleweight division free seminars every few months!

Light Heavyweight talent on display — the division has come a long way from a few years ago, when prospects appeared to be in very short supply.

There were a WHOLE LOT of reactions to Khalil Rountree’s perfectly timed, absolutely disgusting side kick to the knee (WATCH IT!). Here are the ones I found most relevant:

There are worse people to learn from than the great Georges St. Pierre!

Is Paulo Costa a flat-Earther or a Twitter goofball?

Ciryl Gane may have a different opponent than expected when it comes time to unify the Heavyweight crown!

Slips, rips, and KO clips

I actually really like the step backward into Southpaw, pop a stiff jab that Amir lands at the beginning of the clip.

Classic tall guy shuck to the back clinch then an aggressive neck attack!

There is absolutely no room to breathe in this closed guard, arm-in guillotine.

Random Land

A weird plant crab guy:

Midnight Music: I’ve been listening to my workout mixes a good bit lately, so here’s a track off one of them! Steve Albini is definitely a consistent figure across different bands and decades in my workout music of choice.

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