Midnight Mania! ‘Racist’ Insult Lands Cejudo In Hot Water

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Henry Cejudo’s shtick is well-established at this point. “Triple C” acts as obnoxiously and — dar…

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Henry Cejudo’s shtick is well-established at this point. “Triple C” acts as obnoxiously and — dare I say it? — cringey as possible for attention. It distracts from the fact that Cejudo is an astoundingly talented and accomplished athlete, but Cejudo is chasing dollar bills, and he’s kept his trash talk fairly harmless overall.

Earlier today, however, Cejudo referred to top Bantamweight contender Aljamain Sterling as “Aljamima” and sparked a bit of controversy in the process.

Cejudo’s play on words with the maple syrup brand, Aunt Jemima, is messing about with a more complicated issue. The design of the Aunt Jemima logo directly stems from Jim Crow Era racist imagery and minstrel shows. While it’s unclear if Cejudo knows the extent of that ugly section of American history, UFC anchor Karyn Bryant has already requested he refrain from repeating the insult.

It seems unlikely to me that Cejudo would purposefully go down this path if he knew about the entire issue — being accused of racism is good for no one’s brand. Bryant’s response was measured as well, simply asking Cejudo to stop. Predictably, Twitter is less reasonable and filled with replies aggressively attacking Bryant, immediately naming Cejudo an irredeemable racist, and generally being cancerous.

Will our own comment section be any better? Scroll below to find out!

Insomnia

Let’s recap some of the social media fallout regarding Diego Sanchez and his goofy coach, whom “The Nightmare” is passionately defending on the Instagram.

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Notice the picture was the last picture before fight was ruled a DQ aside from the Cut sustained for the illegal blow my face looks clean as F, aside from the cut sustained by the illegal knee?! Maybe due to my opponents lack of awareness he lost control and did not recognize I went down from knee to the ribs that broke two ribs. He delivered a kill blow too my head with so much force! Who had to take that head damage me. It was not a glancing blow it was flush with full power and connection! It split my wig & The scar will be with me forever! So for me to continue to compete in this head space makes me a coward? No it makes me a #wiseman maybe you should re watch the fight with no sound and witness the improvements in defense and movement when faced against the odds as is! fighting a 26 year old super athletic goliath that out weighs me by 20lbs has 5 inches in reach 5 inches in height, let’s add a uncanny ability to jump and deliver knees. This challenges my ability to get in for a shot, the game has evolved people it’s 2020 not 1996! @dc_mma 50 seconds in you and Trevor Wittman @twittman2 start poisonings the mind of the nation wide cast with your this is hard to watch and strange when I’m not taking damage. Protecting myself while still fighting a man who was not willing to stay the pocket and fight with me. I was sentenced to death in my own back yard, why isn’t anyone seeing this? Notice pereira got a three song custom champion only walk out song for his dance walk out? as if he was @stylebender or Jonathan Jones? This is not normal behavior by @ufc then @mikebisping hyping him up the dancing the flips OMG! Why the push is it @wwe now? All I know is the scar is for life and so is the Win! That makes 31 ufc fights in row why isn’t anyone saying that? It’s kinda some legend shit I’m doing. Well at least the highest paid top tier fight IQ athlete and legendary champion @thenotoriousmma is not blinded by the smear campaign against me my coach manager and mentor @joshuafabiaknowbody & his company @schoolofselfawareness by the media and others?! Thank you @thenotoriousmma you are a wise man too. It’s been 6 years since we put each others names in our destiny

A post shared by Diego Sanchez (@diegonightmaresanchezufc) on

A much funnier take on a more devastating DQ victory:

Pacman is a legend.

Luis Pena with the best analogy yet regarding bare knuckle boxing!

Thiago Santos moving well again! It will be great to have “Marreta” back in the mix, one of the most entertaining fighters ever.

Great shot of a perfectly placed body kick:

Slips, rips, and KO clips

There were so many incredible knockouts and moments over the weekend at various regional events that I’m set for most of the week! Let’s begin with one of the best check hooks of the year:

This is a fantastic exchange of kicks. One day, I hope MMA kick counters are at a similar level.

Is there anything more fun than a double knockdown?

Random Land

Trippy!

Midnight Music: Though the band name-changed from Women to Viet Cong and finally to Preoccupations over the years, few bands did post-punk better in the 2010s.

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