Midnight Mania! Lesnar Back, Eligible to Fight in January

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

“After receiving notice of his intent to compete in the UFC, USADA re-entered Brock Lesnar to the testing pool on July 3,” the USADA statement read. “With six months and four days remaining on his period of ineligibility, Lesnar will be able to compete on or after January 8, 2019, should he remain in compliance with the UFC Anti-Doping Policy.”

And thus Brock Lesnar is officially back. His melodramatic entrance to the Octagon and unceremonious shove of Daniel Cormier will not be wasted; Lesnar will indeed be fighting Cormier. We think.

Lesnar, 40, is currently suspended for his use of banned substance clomiphene in the lead-up to his UFC 200 bout against Mark Hunt. That fight, which saw Lesnar’s easy win overturned to a no-contest, resulted in a lawsuit from Hunt. Hunt alleges the UFC, which waived the standard 4-month testing period Lesnar was supposed to undergo prior to his return from a 2011 retirement, knew Brock was on steroids and allowed him to compete anyway. Cormier has stated he wants Lesnar tested rigorously prior to competing again in the Octagon.

A January return rules out the big fall card at Madison Square Garden. Will Daniel Cormier opt to fight someone else in the meantime? Or should Alexander Gustafsson’s request be honored and he receive an interim light heavyweight title shot? If Cormier decides to wait half a year for his money fight vs. Lesnar, the interim belt might actually make sense for once. It’s just long enough to where DC, 39 years old himself, might not want to try to fit another fight camp in. He was clear in the post-fight press conference he doesn’t plan on too many more fights in his career.

What should Cormier do? Not fight Shogun. Sorry, DC.

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Insomnia

Tito Ortiz mocked Chuck Liddell for looking like an old man on the pads; just another reason this fight shouldn’t have been made.

Jon Jones is somehow still wanting to be the role model he never could live up to.

Khabib Nurmagomedov working with his first coach, his dad.

Bellator’s new fighter Lyoto Machida took his family for a water buffalo ride

Your reminder that Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier are fighting again.

Francis Ngannou vs. Derek Lewis was always going to be a bad fight until it got good- but it never got good.

Stipe Miocic is so damn classy. He’s still the greatest UFC heavyweight of all time until someone breaks his title defense record.

Paul Felder is the man. By all rights, he should have gotten a performance bonus for that brawl against Mike Perry, fighting through a broken arm and a mask of blood to battle Mike Perry to a split decision a division up.

This is still funny to me.

I would hope the odds are right on this one.

George St. Pierre got put in a rear-naked choke by Chuck Norris.

Black Fedor is the best.

There were a lot of fighters present for International Fight Week.

Suga Sean O’Malley with his real dad, Suga Rashad Evans.

Let’s not forget Friday night’s breakout star, Israel Adesanya, who put on a free striking clinic against the very tough Brad Tavares. Here’s how he unlocked his chakra prior to the bout:

His meme game is on point too

This is what Nigerian-born Adesanya said after the fight in his native tongue.

And lastly here’s a taste of what he can do once he’s warmed up.

This was a real thing that happened that I had to cover Friday night and I never want to speak of it again.

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Slips, Rips, and KO Clips

Just hand wraps

Just stay down

Ezzard Charles was an old-school great.

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