Midnight Mania! No, Izzy Won’t Fight Usman

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Match ups between active champions — aka super fights! — have become more prevalent in the WME era of UFC fight promotion. It’s a simple enough philosophy: both athletes are champions, so what happens if one moves up or down to fight the other? Super fights might stall their respective divisions, but they’re surefire pay-per-view draws, particularly when the champions are dominating their field.

Enter Israel Adesanya and Kamaru Usman. Both men are in the process of lapping their respective divisions, which is why Adesanya was able to quickly jump up to 205 lbs. and challenge for the title last year. Since the two are friends, however, Usman has expressed little interest in moving up to Middleweight, instead targeting a Light Heavyweight move as a potential option.

Usman’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, recently put the idea of a Middleweight super fight between the pair on the table again. Speaking with TSN, Adesanya again shut down the idea this week.

“Kamaru can speak for himself and he has, and I’ve spoken for myself and we said we wouldn’t fight each other,” Adesanya said (via MMAJunkie). “For me personally, it’s bigger than money. Also, I have nothing to gain. It’s the guy coming up from a lower weight class that looks to challenge himself that’s almost the protagonist of the story. That gets to rise to the occasion and that’s cool, but Kamaru’s not interested.

“Ali is just greedy. He sees dollar signs, but I’m like you can make that money elsewhere. But he’s just super greedy and for me, it’s bigger than money. If I was gonna do this sh*t for money and retire, I would have retired three fights ago. I’m set, but nah, it’s bigger than money. It’s just about legacy.”

Fortunately for both champions, they have other options for opponents. Israel Adesanya will battle Robert Whittaker this Saturday night (Feb. 12, 2022) at UFC 272 from Houston Texas, whereas Usman is likely to rematch Leon Edwards sometime in the Summer after he recovers from hand surgery.

Insomnia

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Power and technique from the wrestling world:

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Perfect timing on this head kick, legal even by modern MMA standards!

Random Land

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Save the turtles!

Midnight Music: Protopunk, 1977

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