Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!
Welcome to Midnight Mania!
Moving on from 2020, there are several storylines and fights that carrying into this year. Perhaps the biggest revolves around Jon Jones, who abandoned his Light Heavyweight throne back in the Summer. “Bones” is heading to Heavyweight and likely to debut in July, very possibly opposite the winner of Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou for the Heavyweight title.
Title fight or no, there are some scary match ups among the big men. Regardless of what Israel Adesanya thinks about his body transformation, Jones has taken a patient route for the move, opting to bulk up and gain size prior to his Heavyweight debut.
Based on the progress picture below, it’s working!
Jones looks larger than ever, and if he’s already weighing 250 lbs. as the post seems to indicate, he’s already a full-sized Heavyweight. Even if he stops lifting and focuses more on getting in fight shape, losing a few pounds would still keep him well within range of the average Heavyweight.
In fact, he might end up with a weight advantage over the current kingpin Stipe Miocic, who last tipped the scale at 230.5 lbs.
Insomnia
Rafael Fiziev is crushing the behind-the-scenes training videos game.
Fight camp officially started pic.twitter.com/LtJGzJzYhA
— Rafael “Ataman” Fiziev (@RafaelFiziev) January 13, 2021
Besides the Heavyweight scrap, another fight is booked for the March 13 UFC event.
Gillian Robertson will fight Miranda Maverick at #UFC258 on February 13th. (per @FearTheMAVERICK) #UFC #MMA #UFCESPN pic.twitter.com/s1HWi1ujAL
— MaRCeL DoRFF (@BigMarcel24) January 13, 2021
This animated short goes inside the mind of Conor McGregor:
Some people love fighting. Some people fighting.
Go inside the mind of @TheNotoriousMMA with the man himself
Conor McGregor returns in just 10 days time.#UFC257 | Jan 23 | BT Sport Box Office pic.twitter.com/yscjad3ffc
— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) January 13, 2021
Jason Knight makes a return to caged combat after his bare knuckle stint.
Urijah Faber vs. Brian Kelleher sounds like a really fun match up!
Hmmm what better then a little California love for Valentine’s Day @UrijahFaber you’re a legend ! Would be a fun one feb 13th ? @ufc @seanshelby
— Baldy Ed (@brianboom135) January 13, 2021
Valentina Shevchenko is kicking ass on screen in addition to in the Octagon.
A first look at @halleberry directorial debut in the film “Bruised,” which includes a fight with UFC champ @BulletValentina.
Here’s an image and a link to where you can see the clip https://t.co/kFrIxXuv3u pic.twitter.com/4lTkYpBvQ4
— Damon Martin (@DamonMartin) January 12, 2021
Slips, rips, and KO clips
A great deal of Ngannou’s frustration about not fighting has to come from the fact that all of his recent fights can be crammed into a single Twitter video.
All of Francis Ngannou’s last 3 fights put together in one video clip pic.twitter.com/2pa1i3yzKn
— Jason Williams (@jasoneg33) January 13, 2021
SUMO!
Day4 A throw we’d expect at the end (watch feet). H?sh?ry? (L) is a surprising 0-3, and at near bottom of makuuchi he needs to get some wins if he is to stay here. Foe is makuuchi stalwart Sadanoumi. Both have sumo pedigrees. #hatsubasho2021 pic.twitter.com/p1Aa2OLJZU
— SumoSoul ??? (@TheSumoSoul) January 13, 2021
Day4 ?zeki Sh?dai has won all bouts so far, except vs perfect Eish? so (shhh..) Foe, wunderkind Kotosh?h? (L) has had a stellar rise, with only one MK since joining in ‘18, but at 0-3 the door to sanyaku is looking a bit to heavy for him to push open (this time). #hatsubasho2021 pic.twitter.com/KkQnOVZEag
— SumoSoul ??? (@TheSumoSoul) January 13, 2021
Some major vintage violence from a young Carlos Condit, who squares off with fellow veteran savage Matt Brown in Saturday’s co-main event.
Carlos Condit vs. Renato “Charuto” Verissimo – Rumble on the Rock 8 pic.twitter.com/tWUb7UVHzx
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) April 6, 2020
Random Land
A really neat bit of engineering:
Midnight Music: 52 years ago today, The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine released. Half EP, half fairly random orchestral tracks from the trippy movie, the first half has some seriously great tracks.
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.