Midnight Mania! Mitchell Gifts Helwani Home-Cooked Squirrel Dinner

Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight! Welcome to Midnight Mania!
Fresh off his incredible twister submission last Saturday at UFC “DC,” Mitchell made…

UFC Fight Night: Overeem v Rozenstruik

Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Fresh off his incredible twister submission last Saturday at UFC “DC,” Mitchell made an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s MMA show yesterday. The proud Arkansas-native discussed his win and — among other things — the cooking and consumption of local wildlife.

When Helwani tweeted the above earlier today, Mitchell quickly replied, offering to bring Helwani a sample of squirrel pot pie. The nine-time “MMA Journalist of the Year” tried to back out of this arrangement, but by that point, it was already too late.

Credit to Bryce Mitchell, the Featherweight prospect is making a name for himself in the best way: genuine character. Whether it’s cooking up squirrels, calling for camouflage Reebok apparel, or taking power tools to his own testicles, Mitchell has been nothing if not entertaining in his short time on the roster without it feeling forced in any way.

Insomnia

UFC 245 marks the beginning of Season 35 of the MMAmania Money Pool. It’s 20 bucks to pick 10 events and potentially win a few hundred bucks. As the Money Pool GOAT, I humbly invite anyone interested to click through this link HERE for further details and join in the fun!


Aljamain Sterling reflects on the most devastating loss of his career:

View this post on Instagram

It took a lot of balls to decide whether or not I wanted to post this… for obvious reasons. Social media tends to only highlight the highs of our lives. I always felt different about this approach, which offers a false sense of reality. I like to share the good, the bad, the funny, and the ugly, even when it hurts! – 2 years ago, this day, I was riding high on my horse. Cocky, arrogant, and feeling invincible, after beating a former world champion, and being on a new 2-fight win streak. The title shot felt inevitable… I took a short notice fight with an opponent, that I knew was tough, but for some reason, my confidence blinded me to not doing the proper things I normally did to prep before a fight. We call this, overlooking your opponent. I ended up paying the ultimate price when we stepped in the octagon, and stared each other in the face. – From the being in the back room, I felt…different? Normally, I’m nervous, anxious, and my fight or flight reflexes are peaked at an all-time high. December 9th, 2017, was different tho…It felt like I was walking to a restaurant or something else relaxing in nature. – Sure enough, the fight would begin and NOTHING went my way. My timing was off, Moraes beat me on each counter, each exchange, and even dropped me with a left hook behind the ear. I quickly realized, I was in a fistfight! I found semi-success with my grappling when I almost locked up a triangle choke, shortly after being dropped. – Marlon let me back up, after he escaped the submission attempt. I was losing this fight only a minute into it and I was panicking… I threw my last Hail Mary and tried to dive in on a takedown, from West Bubba-Fuck, with ZERO setup to my entry. Unfortunately for me Moraes threw a switch-kick, which I still feel was intended for the body, and it landed FLUSH on my chin. As Travis Scott would say, “I was out like a light”… – This fight changed me. It’s hard to find the right words how it affected me, but it made me stronger. I was the NY kid that danced after getting a finish in a fight and ironically, I did the Dab and I was KO’d and it wasn’t my intentions to dab at that moment (haha?). There was a lot of soul… (PT 1)

A post shared by Aljamain Sterling (@funkmastermma) on

In a similarly mature moment, Thiago Alves shows respect to Tim Means, who submitted him over the weekend. Look at the toe marks in that second picture though — Alves can still kick like a horse!

UFC is not holding back opposite Mark Hunt.

It’s always great to see a country proud of their athlete.

I’m going to post this now, but if you don’t think I’m also going to include it prominently in the Christmas Midnight Mania, you’re out of your mind!

View this post on Instagram

Platinum Claus. #UFC245

A post shared by ufc (@ufc) on

Despite all evidence to the contrary, Joe Lauzon has not been a black belt for the last ten years like I would’ve thought!

“The California Dad” and his baby daughter are apparently on a first-name basis.

I don’t care what anyone thinks, I expect UFC 245’s main event to be a great fight.

This is a great picture of an Anthony Joshua right hand. The sweat just flies better in boxing!

View this post on Instagram

Water No Get Enemy

A post shared by Anthony Joshua (@anthonyjoshua) on

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Speaking of the new black belt — given the context, this has to be one of the most hilarious beatings in UFC history.

The distance wasn’t quite there to throw a switch kick to the mid-section …

Speaking of kick counters, this is one of the most violent ones I’ve ever seen! Maeyama reached all the way into his opposite back pocket for that right hand.

Random Land

Mike Tyson retweeted this article, lives in Las Vegas, loves pigeons, and is high all the time …

Midnight Music: Gene Clark’s fourth studio album No Other was panned upon release back in 1974, and it was only after his death and with subsequent reissues that critics and the general public agreed that it was actually really damn good. Judge for yourself:

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.