Midnight Mania! ‘Blessed’ Luque Talks Brain Bleed: ‘I’m Better Than 100%’

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If you’re a little bit nervous about UFC Vegas 78’s headlining match between Vicente Luque and Rafael dos Anjos, which is scheduled to go down this weekend (Sat., Aug. 12, 2023) at the UFC Apex, you’re probably not alone. Luque has been on the sidelines for about a year now, and the reason for his layoff is simple: he suffered a brain hemorrhage in his loss to Geoff Neal last summer. That’s a scary diagnosis, far from a common MMA injury.

The No. 10-ranked Welterweight spent much of that time getting tested and working to get cleared to compete again. Finally, he’s allowed to fight once more, and Luque believes that he’ll be back better than ever.

“That was definitely unfortunate, but I was 100 percent blessed to be able to recover very well,” Luque said during Thursday’s media event (transcription via MMAJunkie). “Since the first day, right after the fight when I got the news, they did all the testing, all the exams and everything went well. My body was recovering.

“Then the UFC, my manager Ali Abdelaziz, they were always with me in this process trying to get the best information for me to make sure I was going to get fully recovered and be able to compete. Now I’m back and 100 percent. I would even say I’m better than 100 percent. I feel a much better fighter than I was before. I’m definitely blessed.”

Though Neal was the first man to knock out Luque, the Brazilian is known for getting in wars. He’s taken serious damage numerous times, like in his fights with Bryan Barberena, Mike Perry, and Niko Price. He may have won all of those contests, but Luque has never been known for his defensive acumen.

Perhaps that changes this weekend? According to Luque, he’s now more cautious with his sparring intensity, and the result is more technical work and improvement.

“Even the way I spar has changed,” Luque said. “It’s much more technical and I know how to work in a way where I’m not getting into brawls in sparring anymore. Also, being with the team at Kill Cliff, there are so many high-level guys that they know how to respect that. We push hard physically cardio, but we don’t need to be hitting each other and hurting each other.”

Insomnia

What is this? Why have I never previously seen it? Pay Michael “Venom” Page whatever he wants.

This edit also made me laugh out loud.

Dan Hooker lost a couple fights then decided to embrace inked life heavy.

MMA is simply an extremely roundabout way to become a real estate agent or cop.

A top-tier tweet from Sodiq Yusuff.

Honestly, Charles Rosa lasted on the UFC roster a lot longer than most of us would probably have predicted, so good for him.

A wild serving of scrambled legs!

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Prospect for everyone to keep an eye on: Australia’s Isaac Thomson. At 21 years of age, kid is a highly technical striker with great overall skill.

Listen to this one with the audio on. Fighting isn’t all hashtags and retweets …

Just an absolutely insane comeback win!

Random Land

A long clip, but one well worth watching in my opinion.

Midnight Music: Folk rock, 2003

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