Midnight Mania! ‘Mighty Mouse’ Questions Logic In McGregor’s Flyweight Remark

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

After Demetrious Johnson was ‘traded’ to ONE Championship for Ben Askren, news quickly got out that the UFC was planning on folding it’s flyweight division. Dana had threatened this as a way to get leverage over Johnson in 2017, but eventually backed down. With Johnson’s exit though, the promotion had evidently seen enough of 125-lb. male fighters.

According to Johnson, the decision had been brewing for years, and it didn’t matter how entertaining he was as champion.

“I mean they were talking about closing it two years ago,” Johnson said recently. “It’s not the first time they’ve ever brought it up, you know? They were talking about closing when I was a champion, and I was like ‘okay, it is what it is…

“The UFC was planning on getting rid of flyweight division when I was the champion — finishing people, not taking people to decision, finishing people.”

One of the oddest moments in the broader story was a tweet by Conor McGregor that placed all the blame on ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong for the UFC’s decision.

This made no sense to anyone, least of all Demetrious Johnson, who pointed out that of any fighter, McGregor was the only one who might be able to do something about it.

“I don’t get where this logic comes behind that,” Johnson said. “What makes him think Chatri owes somebody something?”

“If he’s worried flyweights losing their jobs, I’m pretty sure he has a huge stake in the UFC company now,. I’m sure he can go to Dana, and be like Dana, ‘Keep these guys, these guys are fucking amazing. Let’s try to do this right. Let’s try to promote them.’ Facilitate a meeting of those who can [change things], with Proper Whiskey. ‘Let’s sit down and have a good talk.’ I’m sure he could come up with something if he really wanted to do it.”

“As I said, that’s Conor’s opinion of what he thinks should happen. This is a guy who just business, you know, the Barclay’s Center [thing], throwing the dolly in the bus, hurting multiple people. I truly think he doesn’t care. But that’s just my personal opinion.”

He’ll do fookin’ nothing to save the flyweights, as it turns out. Some of the released 125-pounders have been scooped up by ONE; others have landed in RIZIN. Hopefully they will be more appreciated on foreign soil than they were by fans and the UFC in the United States.

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Insomnia

Prayers and good thoughts to Cub Swanson’s kids, who have been in the hospital all week.

Justin Scoggins practicing his karate combinations on the pads ahead of his RIZIN debut- practice makes permanent, as they say.

I found this incredibly funny for some reason- Robert Whittaker covers Kelvin Gastelum’s fist bump

Mark Hunt’s people all look like Mark Hunt. He’s not even close to the biggest guy there, either.

The creativity and culture in Tai Tuivasa and Mark Hunt’s walkouts was very cool.

You can’t believe everything you see on the internet, apparently. Who knew? Cub shot down this rumor quickly.

This is technically a martial art, right? No? Close enough.

Will Dustin Poirier get his red panty night?

Those who don’t like animal kills, skip this video from Eryk Anders in which an alligator gets got.

Sometimes all you need is a buddy who has your back.

This isn’t surprising. Shogun coming back from that first round was almost as miraculous as Tyson Fury getting up from Deontay Wilder’s killshot.

Israel Adesanya doing a shoey and then getting scolded by his Mom was hilarious.

That look when you killed someone dead and they come back to life is priceless. One for the annals of boxing history.

The scorecards were awful, though.

I know Dana says a lot of stuff, but I believe him this time, fair or not.

Is it just me or has Gunnar Nelson bulked up?

An all-time classic moment

Only more entertaining shadow-boxer is Paulo Costa, in my opinion.

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Slips. Rips. KO Clips.

Robocop is such a great fighter nickname.

“Dodge this”

The delayed reaction bodyshot: when you know it really hurt.

This one got scary for Adonis

Look at this armbar outta nowhere!

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Random Land

Strap in because there was a lot of randomness over the weekend, starting with the big Neck Guy.

Add this to the vacation destinations I’ll never make it to.

This Boeing fighter-bomber was too late to make it to WW2 but its engine was so powerful that the designers opted for two contra-rotating propeller blades to offset the torque.

I’m still on an obscure firearms kick, and Russia has a lot of them. Here’s an upside-down pistol so accurate they banned it in international competition shooting… and according to the internet, the designer was blind.

Sleep well, Maniacs! A better tomorrow is always possible. Follow me on Twitter and Facebook @Vorpality