Midnight Mania: ‘When You Die, I Celebrate!’

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Conor McGregor may be in deep mental pain over his UFC 303 absence, but Khabib Nurmagomedov is still having the more difficult week.

On June 23, Dagestan suffered a terror attack that killed at least 21 people, as several churches were targeted with automatic weapons. One of the perpetrators of the attack was MMA fighter Gadzhimurad Kagirov, who had ties to Nurmagomedov’s MMA academy. Khabib admitted that Kagirov had done some training at the gym, but he was adamant that Kagirov was not part of the team and had only spent limited time there.

As a result of Kagirov’s ties, however, special forces in Russia raided the Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov School. There’s video below of the armed forces closing in on the gym. It must be an extremely difficult situation for Khabib, particularly since his father originally started training Dagestani youth to help keep them away from extremism.

McGregor, Khabib’s former opponent, is far less sympathetic. In fact, he’s outright gloating on social media. Retweeting a video of the gym raid, McGregor added the caption “McGregor was right.” In addition, McGregor went on a full rant against “The Eagle” that covered everything from wanton violence to drug testing accusations.

The tweets haven’t even been deleted yet (at the time of writing)!

“In the terrorists gym when a tester showed up they would hold him hostage and give a random clean persons urine vs the fighters they were looking to test. All will come out now. When this comes down on top of them watch what surfaces. There is a video of khabib walking into a premise full of people and smashing it up entirely with a bat , threatening all those inside. All will come out. Mystic Mac

I fought this little b—ch made rat with a full broken foot. I should have postponed like I done this time. For what did I give this little cousin f—ker any advantage for. He s—t himself on that bus and showed his true chicken heart. B—ch made spoilt brat. Now you are F—KED! When you die I celebrate!”

Not a bad rant for a man who claims to have given up trash talk.

Insomnia

BJ Penn is the premier political analyst of our time.

Verbal agreement signed for Benoit Saint-Denis vs. Renato Moicano — BANGER!

In other incredible Lightweight match up news!

Jared Gooden is a good example of how luck can play a major role in a fighter’s career. Two questionable decisions and a head butt “No Contest” have changed his entire trajectory.

Georges St. Pierre’s takedown setups were great, but his ability to drive through a shot — any shot — was especially outstanding.

Jamahal Hill was fairly polite for all the trash he’s talked …

Cory Sandhagen demonstrates the leaping left hook:

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Right hand stunned Gonzalez, then the liver shot put him away.

Using the right kick to reload the hips and fire the left hook:

Dan Henderson should be on more all-time great lists, and Rafael Feijao has unfortunately been forgotten about entirely by most. He was very good at his peak!

Random Land

Crime doesn’t pay.

Midnight Music: Folk rock, 1965

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