Midnight Mania! Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor fight date targeted for Aug. 26

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania! We’re back, Maniacs, and there is a lot to catch up on. I was gone for a whole week, so there might be some stuff in here you’ve seen already. Deal with it. Tonight, we’ve reportedly got a date for MayGregor, we’ve got a lot of cool knockouts, podcasts, robot wrestling, kangaroo fights, factoids … you know, the usual bit.

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Save The Date!

ESPN.com is reporting that the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor fight is possible for Aug. 26, 2017, after the original date was hijacked. ESPN references a “source with knowledge” for this information.

Mayweather Promotions plans to request the date from the Nevada State Athletic Commission for the much-anticipated boxing match between Mayweather, the former longtime pound-for-pound king and heavy favorite who plans to exit a 23-month retirement for the bout, and UFC superstar Conor McGregor, a source with knowledge of the plan told ESPN on Monday.

ESPN’s article goes on to state that Mayweather Promotions was slated to officially request the date for an unspecified promotion, but it dropped that request, probably because the deal is not yet finalized with Showtime. ESPN’s source also said the bout would most likely take place at T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. McGregor is currently in the application process for his Nevada boxing license, while Mayweather must renew his. Originally, the date they had been eyeing was reportedly Sept. 16, 2017, but that date was taken by Canelo-GGG, who, according to the article, requested a three-week window from the T-Mobile arena around their event so that Mayweather-McGregor wouldn’t eclipse them. The August date is exactly three weeks before September 16. McGregor warned us something big was coming.

The parties involved are determined not to repeat their experience negotiating Mayweather-Pacquiao.

“There are negotiations ongoing, but none of us wants to turn this into the circus that the Mayweather-[Manny] Pacquiao negotiations were, so I think it’s best if we keep all the business discussions private until the deal is done,” Showtime Sports executive vice president and general manager Stephen Espinoza told ESPN on Monday night.

Ever since I started writing this column back in November, McGregor-Mayweather rumors have been swirling, and I’ve had to write about them. Now, it finally appears that this dumbass fight has a date and a signed contract. And that’s great, because it means I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I don’t even care that there is a .0001 percent chance it will be competitive in any way. I am just stoked to see a date in sight.

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Insomnia

Robot single-leg and slam? Daniel Cormier would be proud.

Kangaroos go hard, and this girl doesn’t have the motivation of freeing her dog.

Oh my …

Dan Kelly’s Wikipedia page tells us so much about him. Brunson should feel bad about first round KOing a guy whose other name is “Dad” … especially this close to Father’s Day.

Speaking of Father’s Day, Chris Weidman winning all the dad points here.

Cris Cyborg’s regimen is really insane!

Cultural collision between Marc Diakese and Teruto Ishihara.

Whoever runs the UFC Fight Pass account can consider themselves served — don’t play the facts game with Mike Bohn.

Some other facts, specifically about Aldo and his vaunted leg kicks. He hasn’t used them consistently since World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC).

More facts! I get to include this since I was gone last week and Max Holloway is awesome.

I am stoked for the “Blessed Era.”

Vitor Belfort getting the star treatment in Brazil — maybe another reason he isn’t retiring.

This was great trash talk from Tito Ortiz in case you missed it. Liddell posted a “Why not?” pic and Tito was quick to respond … then apologize. Bisping is saying that Liddell may sign with Bellator because he’s “pissed off” at losing his cushy UFC job, so maybe this fight is still a possibility.

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Slips, Rips, and KO Clips

How insane was that Max Holloway win over Jose Aldo last weekend? I’m still buzzing over it a week and change later.

Aldo avoided the first two punches, but he wasn’t moving his feet at this point and he paid for it. Aldo has been a frustrating fighter for years to me because he rests in fights a lot, going minutes at a time without throwing anything. Max Holloway didn’t let him do that … and that’s what won him the fight.

Watching someone twitch into unconsciousness via chokehold is cringe-inducing.

Ouch!

Lethwei is the gloveless cousin to Muay Thai, and it’s pretty wild.

He found the “easy” button!

I love a good joint submission.

This was really wild. First, Harut Grigorian looks away, for some unknown reason. Naturally, Murthel Groenhart knocks him out cold … and then gets ferociously assaulted in the ring.

I still don’t know why he just turned away here …

Beatdown!

Multiple opponents in MMA is always a bad idea.

The Swiffer … I get it!

Man, that wasn’t what I expected when this clip began, but that’s why they say MMA is chaos.

This was from last week, but there is something so classic about the head shake to immediate flattening … especially when that flattening comes courtesy of a perfectly placed head kick.

How beautiful.

I’ve seen this before, but it’s a backfist with aspirational appeal. I, too, want to land this in a street fight.

Mark Hunt dug into his bag of experience to defeat the Black Beast at the weekend. He’s come a long way since this fight.

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Podcasts and Video

The MMA Hour

MMA Mania’s own post-fight show and Fight Nerds podcast (subscribe to our channel here)

The Severe MMA podcast, which is probably garbage because I didn’t submit any questions this week (vacation and all)

The Co-Main Event podcast is off this week. Please go spam them and complain about that on Twitter.

The Naked Truth podcast interviewed Brandon Gibson, the legendary Jackson-Winklejohn striking coach

The Naked Gambler also had an unparalleled meltdown after UFC 212, which anyone who loved Aldo will relate to.

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Good Reads

• It’s always fun to follow along as writers try their hand at fighting. In this case, Anton Tabuena and his brother continue their journey into Muay Thai.
• Michael Bisping was hauled off a flight to be randomly searched.
• Alexander Gustafsson sounds totally okay with letting teammate Manuwa getting a title shot ahead of him… which I totally would not be.

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Random Land

Anyone watch the NBA? Golden State Warriors got their championship this time around.

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Stay woke, Maniacs!