Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!
Welcome to Midnight Mania!
Wait, didn’t I just write about a retired former Light Heavyweight title contender returning to the Octagon?
Time really is a flat circle. It’s been less than two months since Alexander Gustafsson came up short to Anthony Smith in an admittedly uninspired performance. In response, Gustafsson left his gloves in the ring, signaling an end to his 12 year professional career.
In an interview with MMANYTT, Gustafsson no longer sounds so certain:
“I fought my last fight against Anthony Smith and it didn’t go as planned,” Gustafsson tells MMAnytt’s Ashah Tafari. “I felt an incredible frustration, I’m a really sore loser and I left my gloves in the cage and felt that it’s enough now. But with that said I still have this tingle in my hands. This is very new, it’s been a month and I’m far from a retired fighter in my way of thinking and such. I’ve made my decision and so on but it takes time to adapt and accept the new things in life and your role in all of it.”
Is it really a surprise is any way that Gustafsson is already considering a return to competition? Even MMA fighters that retire on a win usually feel the itch to return to combat — look at Urijah Faber! “The California Kid” won an awesome fight in his home city to complete his career, and he still jumped at the first chance to return to the cage and give it another shot as this weekend’s co-main event.
It’s definitely a difficult life adjustment to make, particularly for someone like Gustafsson who’s made several hundred thousand dollars in a single night several times before. Realistically, Gustafsson worked very hard for peanuts for much of his career, only getting paid big in his last few years of competition.
Longevity is what gets fighters paid in MMA, and it’s part of the reason why athletes who should probably stay retired cannot stay away. Hopefully, if Gustafsson does return to the Octagon, he does so with a renewed fire to compete, as he is still fairly young at 32 years of age and could remain a relevant Light Heavyweight.
Oh, and I guess we have to changes Jon Jones’ nickname to “Mystic” now.
Insomnia
Team Alpha Male fight week!
“The Golden Snitch” must be doing something right.
The UFC has promoted Jeff Novitzky from VP of Athlete Health and Performance to Senior VP of Athlete Health and Performance per a press release. pic.twitter.com/Ts76YHK91X
— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) July 9, 2019
Corey Anderson gets overlooked quite a bit and is legitimately a top five Light Heavyweight, but he really cannot blame anyone after turning down some fights that could’ve been huge wins.
With all my tweeting and responses… I am man enough to also say that I fucked up by passing up the Rockhold fight and hesitating on the Gus fight. I used poor judgement. But I still want my chance to earn the gold. I’m still here to fight the best in the @ufc #UFC239
— Corey Anderson UFC (@CoreyA_MMA) July 9, 2019
Ilir Latifi working his defense.
Adesanya is quite the shit-stirrer.
“He WAS great when he was fighting and there wasn’t USADA around…”@stylebender says Jon Jones “needs to get back on the pictograms” to be great again (via @arielhelwani) pic.twitter.com/4oHbmTmPIH
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) July 8, 2019
Marvin Vettori running some drills with Kelvin Gastelum ahead of his bout this weekend.
Cejudo may be a dork, but this is pretty cool.
Saenchai highlights are just the best.
Slips, rips, and SUMO clips
Solecki bopped his foe with the right hand a few times, threw him to the mat, and strangled him to sleep in the first round for a contract. Picture-perfect arm-across guillotine for the John Hassett-trained black belt!
Joe Solecki (8-2) looks stellar in his third-straight win, sleeping “Jesse” James Wallace with a nasty guillotine! Now 5-1 in his last six, the CFFC vet has stopped seven, each in round one and six by sub. #DWCS pic.twitter.com/H3IX7zYHi2
— Kyle Johnson (@VonPreux) July 10, 2019
Sumo clips finally appeared on my Twitter feed, so now I can pass them on. Thank you Megaton and SumoSoul!
Good effort by Ryuden who has turned out to be a very solid rikishi but a redo is called as they can’t determine if Ryuden or Takayasu landed first pic.twitter.com/9pksIRNzlG
— MEGATON (Nanaka & Shemetov International Fan Site) (@BasedDongeezus) July 8, 2019
Another good effort by Ryuden and this time he gets the nod over the ozeki pic.twitter.com/xpq18QAnKI
— MEGATON (Nanaka & Shemetov International Fan Site) (@BasedDongeezus) July 8, 2019
Day3 #monoii for #Endo (L) and #Takayasu, for sake of completion. #Sumo #natsubasho2019 pic.twitter.com/TUkOkfrvM6
— SumoSoul (@TheSumoSoul) July 9, 2019
Hokutofuji had him going for a bit but once Hakuho got the grip over the back he had control of the bout pic.twitter.com/8tFdMRNPSN
— MEGATON (Nanaka & Shemetov International Fan Site) (@BasedDongeezus) July 9, 2019
Random Land
Y’all ever just feel the need to throw hands in Disneyland? Lines are a little too long sometimes. Sun a bit too hot. Food is pretty pricey.
It could make a person go crazy.
Today at the happiest place on earth. pic.twitter.com/79j2godsUz
— OutSide ??? (@ImReallyOutHere) July 8, 2019
Midnight Mania: I admittedly only own like three soundtrack albums, but the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack is a great listen for folk/bluegrass fans and obviously an amazing film too.
Sleep well Maniacs! There’s always more martial arts madness on the way.