Stop Playing! Paul Vs. Silva ‘1000% Happening!’

Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight! Welcome to Midnight Mania!
Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva is set to be a major marquee event. Dismiss the …


UFC 212 Press Conference
Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva is set to be a major marquee event. Dismiss the fight as more nonsense if you’d like, but Paul is an established draw, and Silva is far and away the biggest challenge of his young career yet. It’s an intriguing match up of wildly different personalities, and the tickets are selling very well.

However, the fight is quite simply at risk. Silva confessed to being knocked out more than once in training, and even if he walked back those comments, “The Spider” drew a bit too much attention to himself anyway. Earlier today, the Arizona Boxing Commission held an emergency meeting to discuss the bout, which seemingly threatens to cancel the whole affair.

There’s yet to be any official news from that meeting.

That would be bad news for everyone involved, but especially Paul, whose planned scraps with Tommy Fury and Hasim Rahman Jr. have already been cancelled this year. Fortunately, Paul is firm about the show continuing on, and he took to Twitter to reassure fight fans that the main event wasn’t going anywhere.

“Stop playing with me!” Paul tweeted. “#PaulSilva is 1000% happening.”

Stay tuned for further confirmation or cancellation.

Insomnia

I don’t mean to endorse pirating on an official article, but if Bellator tape delays their product, they are asking for the true hardcore fans to watch on some crappy, porn-ad-filled 480p stream. NOBODY WANTS THAT!

Khalil Rountree fights Dustin Jacoby Jr. this weekend, which should be very entertaining.

As always, salute to all the mitt men braving injury and horrific wrist/shoulder pain to prepare our favorite athletes.

Islam Makhachev always had a foolproof backup plan to capture the Lightweight belt.

I don’t know that I necessarily love the idea of pitting older Muay Thai legends against one another sans-gloves, but if BKFC is going to expand into Muay Thai, I am more inclined to watch.

Never a bad time to mock Dillon Danis.

… or Brendan Schaub.

Umar Nurmagomedov isn’t impressed by the new UFC rankings.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

It’s becoming hard to keep track of all the badass Nurmagomedovs climbing the ranks.

Once you square up with someone, you cannot be surprised if they pop you!

The biggest thing I got from these clips is a reminder of just how much more measured/intelligent of a fighter Alexander Volkanovski has grown to be since his early UFC fights.

Random Land

Combative kitty on a skateboard!

Midnight Music: Punk, 1989

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