Midnight Mania! MMA fighter wrecks traditional Tai Chi master in China

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

Welcome, to Midnight Mania! Tonight, we’ve got an old-school style vs. style clash in China — traditional martial arts against MMA, knockouts from the weekend, one kid taking out five attackers, and much more.

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Insomnia

It appears history is happening all over again in China. Via BloodyElbow.com, comes the unfolding story of Tai Chi (and other traditional Chinese martial arts) against the raw aggression and modern skill-set of MMA. We’ve seen this story before.

This MMA fighter, Xu Xiaodong, had been talking all kinds of trash on the internet, claiming traditional martial arts were phony and fake. When the moment of truth came, he delivered on that thesis, brutally knocking out the “Tai Chi master” and then returning to social media site Weibo to talk more trash.

What makes this event extraordinary is the reaction Xu is garnering. He has been challenged by several traditional martial artists, despite the official stance of the Chinese Wushu association. Via Bloody Elbow:

Straits Times reports that He Xi Rui, head of the Wudang Tai Chi sect, was one of the first to respond to Xu’s challenge. Using Weibo Xu wrote, “You are welcome to visit the Wudang Mountains to witness real martial arts.”

Lu Xing, another Tai Chi master – this time from the ‘Pushing Hands’ school in Sichuan Province – also accepted the challenge. Lu told Chengdu Business News that he’ll likely beat Xu thanks to his ‘iron fist’ which took more than twenty years to develop.

Yi Long, who has been marketed as ‘China’s strongest Shaolin monk’ also took to Weibo to accept Xu’s challenge. A fight with Xu would be familiar territory for Yi, who has previously tested his Kung Fu style boxing against western and Thai-style fighters.

Yi Long in action:

Will the upstart MMA fighter Xu get the better of these respected martial artists? A lot rides on it. Not only did Xu himself offer 1.2 million yuan, about $174,000, to the person who can beat him, but an entrepreneur, Chen Sheng, has added his own money to the pile: 10 million yuan to the person who can beat Xu. This has all the makings of another Ip Man movie.

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Bobs and Weaves

Derrick Lewis posted this insane video of a kid beating up five attackers using what looks like a deep well of Muay Thai training.

The weird animations are back.

That’s called shade, kids.

Nate Diaz and Dave Chappelle are the most random duo ever … then again, the Diaz brothers are mixing it up with all the cool people nowadays.

How did they do this?

Conor McGregor’s girlfriend Dee Devlin had a baby and the little guy already has thousands of followers on his Instagram account.

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Slips, Rips, KO Clips

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Quick Reads

• Jack Slack breaks down the rematch of Dos Santos and Miocic with all the GIFs he can muster.
• Anderson Silva says he’s retired.
• Luke Rockhold wants release from his UFC contract as well.

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Random Land

Stay woke, Maniacs!