Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!
Welcome to Midnight Mania!
The idea for the billionaire vs. billionaire brawl between Tesla’s Elon Musk and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg has only been circulating since the end of June, but the hype built quickly. Betting odds dropped and lukewarm trash talk simmered. A whole bunch of UFC fighters chose their corner, and UFC President Dana White did his best to convince anyone who would listen that it wasn’t a gimmick.
The initial hype was fun, but then nothing materialized. There’s been no meaningful progress in actually booking the thing, which is precisely what most expected. Zuckerberg proposed a date, while Musk proposed an extravagant location, the famed colosseum in Italy.
Between the two, Zuckerberg has been the one actively training martial arts for quite some time. He seems annoyed with the delays and recently announced that he was looking to move on from the match up. Predictably, Musk isn’t impressed with his decision, and he slammed his rival tech CEO for ducking the fight. According to Musk, Zuckerberg is the one making things difficult at every turn, refusing to fight anywhere.
Fight Recap:
I joked on X about fighting Zuck
Zuck then said “SEND ME LOCATION”
Italy graciously offered a Colosseum
Zuck declined
I suggested his home as “safe space”
Tragically, he was ahem “traveling”
Is there anywhere he will fight?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 15, 2023
Since I do get paid to predict fights here, I’ll offer up a surefire prediction here: this is about as far as it goes. Unless they actually decide to fight one another, this is the end point. Both men have an argument that the other man is ducking the contest, and thus both egos are preserved without any fists flying.
It was always going to end this way.
Perhaps Zuckerberg will try to compete for UFC or One Championship against someone else. He’s been willing to get choked out in jiu-jitsu competition, which counts for something. Still, getting punched in the face remains a majorly different proposition than rolling around in one’s fanciest pajamas, so a fight for either is far from guaranteed.
Insomnia
The original match up was great, and this one is too. It’s a shame though, because both Anthony Hernandez and Roman Kopylov have earned shots at ranked opponents.
C.Curtis out. Anthony Hernandez will now fight Roman Kopylov at #NocheUFC on September 16th. (per the OG’s @MikeHeck_JR & @DamonMartin) #UFC #MMA #UFCESPN #UFC2023 pic.twitter.com/lxR6zYPQvW
— Marcel Dorff (@BigMarcel24) August 15, 2023
Israel Adesanya embraces the meme. If he walked out with a Chinese flag or something similar in Australia, that would be his funniest move yet.
For Sean. ?? pic.twitter.com/3C3TRVdwjp
— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) August 15, 2023
Jiu-jitsu parents are insane. There’s nothing like refereeing and getting yelled at for stopping some little six year old from getting their arm snapped because, “They’re flexible!” and haven’t tapped yet.
Nothing in MMA hurts more than low kicks.
Rungwittaya looking like he stuck his leg in a lawnmower after four rounds with Nadaka Yoshinari pic.twitter.com/t2oulNc34c
— Patrick St-Pierre (@patrickallsyms) August 14, 2023
Michael Bisping has been trolled to the point that his trust is completely broken.
Bisping thought that “Naoya Inoue” was a troll name pic.twitter.com/m2lkZWhc6Q
— Borrachinha Depot (@FullContactMTWF) August 15, 2023
Think Mike Chandler has a body shot KO in him? He’d have to stop throwing all his right hands like fastballs.
.@HenriHooft I and always said I needed a few things before I retire – a K.O. via head kick(??Tony) and a body shot K.O. – I’m looking to put water in the basement. Hope that body is built up.
— Michael Chandler (@MikeChandlerMMA) August 15, 2023
Slips, rips, and KO clips
Knockdown into spider monkey mode! Remember the Sodiq Yusuff tweet last week about following people to the ground? Kawaihae is a genius!
Canaan Kawaihae chokes out Chris Mecate in 30 seconds #UFL3 pic.twitter.com/BRBuuFUXDl
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) August 13, 2023
Marlon Vera vs. Davey Grant deserves to be ranked higher on the all-time bangers list.
Chito Vera fight week pic.twitter.com/tQ1sxXUD29
— (@FireMMAVid) August 14, 2023
Quite the turnaround!
Dzhamaludin Aliev (9-0) completely silences the Kyrgyzstan crowd with a beautiful uppercut KO over Myktybek Oskonbaev. And still Open FC Bantamweight champion. #OpenFC33 pic.twitter.com/DoqQLMc48r
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) August 13, 2023
Random Land
Update on the submarine people:
Midnight Music: Hip-hop, 1994
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.