Midnight Mania! Chris Pratt bodies his old coach Randy Couture

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Chris Pratt, the ersthile chubby actor who played “Andy” on Parks and Rec, has revealed considerable hidden talent over the years. He’s into bowhunting, he was able to both lose weight and bulk up in impressive fashion for his breakout role as “Starlord” in “Guardians of the Galaxy”, and now, as it turns out, he’s a wrestler trained by Randy Couture himself. Pratt attended a wrestling camp taught by Couture as a teenager, and in fact demonstrated several throws on the future UFC legend himself.

Pratt calls Randy “The Natural” in this post, but his other nickname is perhaps better suited to grappling someone in the Marvel universe- “Captain America”. As a US Army veteran and three-time Olympic wrestling alternate, Couture has well earned that nickname. He is also the only person to hold both light heavyweight and heavyweight gold in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a feat fellow Olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier will attempt to equal this summer when he faces Stipe Miocic at UFC 226.

The much younger Pratt more than holds his own with a smiling Randy Couture, who clearly still has plenty of that old man strength:

This was Pratt’s caption, telling his history with the UFC legend.

A couple weeks ago I had the great privilege of training with UFC Hall of Famer Randy “the Natural” Couture @xcnatch at #unbreakable in Hollywood. Luckily he took it very easy on me.

Randy first coached me when I was 17 at Oregon State University wrestling camp. After a greco roman training session consisting of throws he invited teenage me to come up and demonstrate the three throws we’d learned that day: the underarm spin, lateral drop and head and arm. It was such an honor. Everyone cheered as I slammed Coach Couture to his back. Not once, not twice… but three times.

A few years later I was one of millions watching on TV as Randy entered The Octagon for the first time and dominated, eventually winning and defending the heavyweight title for years. He is a Pacific Northwest native and all around great dude. Gotta love the wrestlers mentality and work ethic. It’s a great sport which helped keep me out of trouble when I was younger and taught me to grind. I’ve always said it, wrestling made me who I am today. I dedicated years of my life to grappling. I still love it.

Take your sons and daughters to a wrestling practice! It’s important our kids have adults to look up to outside of their parents. Here’s a shout out to all the coaches out there making a difference.

Big thanks to Randy! #unbreakable #UFC#RandyTheNaturalCouture

Being someone who dedicates his time to the important questions, naturally all I can think about is whether Pratt could handle himself against “Guardians” co-star and one-time MMA fighter Dave Bautista.

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Insomnia

Vasyl Lomachenko is joking, but I seriously want this. Six months sprawl training might actually work for a guy who wrestled and did sambo through teenage years, and has the footwork he has.

His former sparring partner TJ Dillashaw is down for this:

Loma is all emojis

Speaking of TJ Dillashaw… Derrick Lewis is a savage

Forrest Griffin consistently asks the right questions in life.

This picture is the essence of Dominick Cruz.

This is the craziest submission you will see today.

Lizard wrestling involves cartwheels

Cody didn’t actually tweet this… right?

I bet Joanna would be better than Rousey at the WWE stuff. Not that I really follow it to know. Her charisma just seems like it would work well there.

Conor McGregor is always throwing hints at Mayweather.

Mayweather is throwing the heat right back. These two want to repeat that huge payday.

I miss Cung Le’s kicking variety

Cain is probably right… I hope.

Conor McGregor’s takedown defense could be really important if he ever fights in the Octagon again.

Any time you do one of those videos, you have to do a follow up just for the comments section:

This guy got a Boss Logic-inspired Jon Jones tattoo, which seems weird to me but Jon Jones himself approves.

I’ll do my part for this, Julian Marquez, because that punt to the head was indeed awesome.

Look closely

Nate Quarry told me about this series he’s involved with, “Bushido Battelground”, and it looks pretty cool:

The papkha-wearing compatriots of Khabib Nurmagomedov have talent:

Working the pads… as a shooter? This is gunfighting and MMA combined, and it’s as crazy as you would think.

Let’s hope so, Robert Whittaker!

I didn’t make a separate knockouts section tonight so just enjoy this disdainful backhand knockout.

And this amazing Korean Zombie fight:

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Podcasts and Video

Check out the latest episode of the MMA Outsiders, an inspiring and far-reaching interview with former UFC title challenger and TUF 1 contestant Nate Quarry. He talks coming back from his back surgery, his views on religion after growing up in a cult, getting to write a zombie comic book based on his life, the inspiration he took from watching his father die, the state of labor negotiations in the UFC, and much more. Due to my error, the audio doesn’t start until about 15 seconds in. Check us out on SoundCloud as well as iTunes and Stitcher on the official MMA Mania channel! And, be sure to follow MMA Mania on Youtube!

The MMA Hour

Monday Morning Analyst

The Co-Main Event podcast

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Quick Hits

• Some of these stories today are… out there. Like Cain saying he could make light heavyweight. Come on, man. Maybe you could… but why?
• Al Iaquinta is always honest, and he says you would have to pay him a million dollars to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov. Oh, and he’s got a new contract, one that he says guarantees him $80,000, with 50K win money, because the whole concept of win money is insane. He’s completely right about that.
• Rampage and Rashad Evans met in a night club, but their beef wasn’t as salient as the butts around them.
• Cyborg is going to adopt a human she knows! Good for her.

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Random Land

The Rise of the Machine, part 00184329

Ouch, Sasha Banks. Ouch.

Stay woke, Maniacs! Follow me on Twitter and Facebook @Vorpality