Midnight Mania! No Mercy And No Pay Raise

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

UFC fighter pay remains a consistent topic of debate and discussion. Among the athletes, there are some who back the promotion and its paychecks as fair — like Paddy Pimblett and Michael Chandler — but there’s been more and more criticism as of late too, especially when UFC President Dana White is handing off $250k to random YouTubers.

Historically, one such fighter with complaints is Sean O’Malley. He’s made it clear in the past that he wouldn’t fight top-ranked opposition without a pay bump, but something has changed. “Suga” is now set to scrap vs. Petr Yan at UFC 280 on Oct. 22, and “No Mercy” is a former champion and absolutely elite Bantamweight. Based on his past statements, one would assume that challenge means an extra zero or two for O’Malley.

However, O’Malley recently revealed otherwise on The MMA Hour. Per “Suga,” it was more of a perspective shift than increased paycheck, as he’s now looking at high-profile UFC fights as an avenue to increase his other revenue streams like merchandise.

“I’d say I’m happy with where I’m at in the UFC, with how I’m being paid, how I’m being treated,” O’Malley began. “I’m definitely happy. It’s really been a perspective change in looking at the UFC as more of a platform for me to sell merch.”

“It really helped my perspective and the relationship I have with the UFC, looking at it that way, you know, that I’m going to take advantage of these opportunities,” he continued. “I’m not getting paid more, now that I’m fighting Petr … I didn’t ask for more money, fighting the number one guy. I’m just going to go out there and take advantage of the opportunity, and that is to fight Petr. I’m lucky to be able to be in this position, to be healthy, to be 27, going into my prime and fighting these top level guys. I’m just going to take advantage of that.”

Insomnia

This old clip of Kai Kara-France and Petr Yan sparring is circulating the web, but I have to say, looks like normal (albeit very high level) sparring to me.

Khabib is a full-on hype man for Islam Makhachev.

The odds of this fight being boring are incredibly small. Featherweight fun!

Dwayne Johnson has officially loaned Molly McCann The People’s Elbow for the foreseeable future.

Old reference for my real MMA nerds: Y’all remember when Rory MacDonald cut up his hand opening an avocado?

Will posting this garbage get me fired? Hopefully not. It’s quite “weird and wild!”

Slips, rips, and KO clips

One of the best one round fights of 2022:

It sucks for kickboxing fans that GLORY is falling apart, but for us in the MMA world, an influx of talent is rarely a bad thing! Cedric Doumbe is going to destroy people if his defensive grappling is even remotely up to par.

Aggressive ground work produces a slick finish.

Random Land

Massive rock fall in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Midnight Music: A great hook from 1986!

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