Midnight Mania! Bellator Vs. Rizin Light Heavyweight Championship Showdown?

Photo by Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight! Welcome to Midnight Mania!
If nothing else, the Bellator and Rizin cooperati…

Bellator 214

Photo by Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

If nothing else, the Bellator and Rizin cooperation is proving to be quite fun. There are still some kinks to be worked out — such as the recent debacle in which the Bellator Japan “post-lims” were unwatchable in the US (though luckily the Internet provided this incredible soccer kick KO). Still, there are now plenty of interesting potential match ups on the table.

The most high-profile type of such cross promotional battles are champion vs. champion fights. Ryan Bader wants a part of one, as the Bellator double champ respectfully took to Instagram to call out Rizin Light Heavyweight kingpin Jiri Prochazka.

The Rizin strap-hanger accepted the fight in a comment reply to the post, so long as the timing was right. Prochazka replied, “First I need to make my exams in school, then will be time for fun.”

It’s a good thing both men are interested in the fight, because it’s an excellent one! Bader has thrived in Bellator, winning eight straight fights, scoring some major stoppages, and picking up two titles in the process. It has been a couple years since he defended the 205-pound title due to his Heavyweight run, but Bader seemingly is ready to defend both straps.

Meanwhile, Prochazka has won ten straight bouts, including nine knockout wins. The 27-year-old Czech athlete defended his Rizin title for the first time just hours ago with a brutal knockout, and he seems plenty ready for the best competition either promotion has to offer.

Insomnia

Lance Palmer’s father — the infamous “Wayne the Pain” — is hilariously out of his mind as well as a favorite follow on Instagram. Sadly, I will never, ever be able to post content from his page due to the wildly offensive nature of his content. Woowee!

Your male UFC champions heading into the new decade:

An incredible jiu-jitsu athlete (one who can wrestle pretty well at that) paired with an expert Muay Thai team/coach seems like a solid recipe for success.

Daniel Cormier bought his mother a house!

It must be salad season for Brazilian leg destroyers — this seems like a pretty bad idea, but we shall see!

Tyron Woodley with the BARS, son!

If you click through and check out the whole thread, it’s gloriously hard to look at.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

I’ve shared many Muay Thai clips in this section of the column, but this is the first one that I filmed myself!

A very slick triangle from a very young fighter:

Start your new year with this SUMO compilation!

Random Land

Head movement for days!

View this post on Instagram

Caption this! via @fyu4a by ononokomati1216 (tiktok)

A post shared by IFYOUHIGH (@ifyouhigh) on

Midnight Music: Cheers to the New Year readers! Best of luck with any resolutions and goals for 2020:

“Oh, I do believe
You are what you perceive
What comes is better than what came before”

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