Midnight Mania: Dead Man Walking!

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Is there anything better than an elite match up with genuine title consequences that also carries very real bad blood?

Khamzat Chimaev and Paulo Costa have real beef. The two nearly came to blows once at the UFC Performance Institute, and ever since then, Costa has pecked and poked at his Chechen rival. The constant trash talk will finally materialize in the form of a recently announced UFC 294 showdown in Abu Dhabi.

There’s a ton on the line here, possibly including a Middleweight title shot. It’s also Chimaev’s big chance to prove himself against an elite Middleweight. Beyond that, there’s a great deal of pride wrapped up in the outcome!

Simply put, the stakes are especially high. Appropriately, Costa is taking the fight very seriously, a pleasant change from his often non-committal attitude. In a recent clip, the burly Brazilian let his opponent know that he’s going to get crushed, and that Costa is taking the fight very seriously.

“Gourmet Chen Chen has no chance, zero, no chance,” Costa told The Mac Life (Via MMAJunkie). “I’m going to destroy him – dead man walking. Dead man walking right there in Chechnya. I come to f—k you in your f—king house, motherf—ker. Training hard every single day, I have no days off. Look at this face, look at this face. Look right here, gourmet Chen Chen: the man who is going to kill you.”

Insomnia

I think I just became a Mayra Bueno Silva fan? This is some cool promotional art!

A pretty cool thread detailing some of Islam Makhachev’s character inside and outside of the cage.

Costa is working his defensive cage work in preparation for the Khamzat fight.

Alexander Volkanovski’s athletic development is fascinating in more ways than one.

Tom Aspinall with a reasonable yet impossible request:

Jan Blachowicz is ready to shine in Salt Lake City!

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Billy Brand went 2-0 over the weekend, stopping his opponent in a really fun fight then accidentally taking out the cut woman too!

Such a beautiful left hand set up perfectly by the corkscrew uppercut.

To my knowledge, it’s been a number of years since anyone has finished a mounted gogoplata in pro MMA.

Random Land

A cool stop motion sequence.

Midnight Music: Alternative rock, 1993

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