UFC Betting Sites – The Best MMA Online Bookies

The Georgian fighter has been travelling all over the world, only to get into a bad car accident the moment he returns home to New York.

UFC bantamweight contender Merab Dvalishvili loves to goof around on his Instagram account, but there was nothing funny about today’s video which featured the aftermath of a multi-car crash.

The video opens with a stunned Merab sitting in the back of a vehicle with all the airbags deployed. He hands a phone on the floor back to the driver before climbing out, muttering “S—, this is crazy.”

On the street there are multiple cars which are damaged from the accident. A red car has the hood panel smashed in. The black car Dvalishvili was in has both doors crumpled in, while a white car has its front driver side completely destroyed.

‘’I am in New York for one day, couple hours, and I got in a huge accident,” Merab says as he continues to film the scene of the accident. “I was in a Uber, and our car got hit by some other cars. I was sitting here. I got hit. Thank God I’m okay.’’

Any time you manage to survive a car accident without injuring your neck or spine is a good day, but Dvalishvili has extra reason to be happy he emerged from this incident without injury. “The Machine” has been promised the next title shot against 135 pound champion Sean O’Malley, and he’s been waiting not-so-patiently for a fight date to be announced.

Timing is everything in this sport, though. If Dvalishvili was hurt in the accident and couldn’t fight later in 2024, we have no doubt O’Malley and the UFC would move on to a less tough and more popular opponent.

Not like Dvalishvili has been doing poorly on the popularity front lately. Since defeating Henry Cejudo at UFC 298, Merab has been all over social media joking around and making new fans. He engaged in a lunch-stealing feud with Paulo Costa at the UFC Performance Institute. He dug up a Sean O’Malley lookalike and has been performing TikTok dances with the guy in front of the Sphere. He just got back from a big promotional trip to India … only to get in this car crash.

We’re happy to know Merab is safe, and the O’Malley lookalike wasn’t involved or hurt either. We’ll keep you informed when we know more about the situation, and a confirmed date for Dvalishvili vs. O’Malley.

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Fresh off his dominant win over Nursulton Ruziboev at UFC St. Louis last weekend (Sat. May 11, 2024), Joaquin Buckley may have found his next dance partner. Initially, Buckley used his post-fight interview to call for a showdown versus Conor McGregor, but “New Mansa” pretty quickly realized that wasn’t going to happen. Appropriately, he changed his target to former Welterweight title challenger Gilbert Burns.

Buckley has called to fight “Durinho” previously, as he’s faced several of Burns’ Kill Cliff FC team mates, like Vicente Luque. Though Burns is coming off a fairly nasty knockout loss to Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 299 back in March, the Brazilian is down to jump back into action and accepted Buckley’s callout on his Show Me The Money podcast.

“Let’s do it,” Burns responded. “The way I see it, I’m not in the situation to call anyone out or to pick and choose. I’m [ranked] number six right now. I don’t know, if they send me [a contract], I’ll say yes now. I never say no to a fight, and I’m not planning on start doing.”

At 37 years of age, Burns has to get back in the win column sooner than later if he’s going to work his way back to a second title shot. He’s lost two fights in a row, the aforementioned knockout loss to Maddalena and a decision defeat to Belal Muhammad. Prior to those defeats, Burns had won two straight fights.

As for Buckley, the rising knockout artist has won four straight since dropping to 170 lbs. He’s looking for the biggest win yet of his career, whereas Burns would have the opportunity to rebound against a tough opponent. If the timeline works for both, the bout makes sense.

Insomnia

I don’t fully understand, but I am impressed.

An interesting bit of history relevant to the recently announced Rose Namajunas vs. Maycee Barber-led event …

Team Usyk responds to the John Fury head butt incident:

Michel Pereira doing his part to help with the flooding in Brazil. Good guy “Demolidor!”

Well, this is certainly one way to hype up a fight …

Joaquin Buckley throwing shots at Michael Chandler in an indirect manner is funny.

A bit of a trend developing in reversing the back clinch? Carlos Diego Ferreira’s sequence really stood out to me when it happened,

A high-level women’s Strawweight booking is heading to the Apex.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Kick low then kick high!

There are literally dozens of very violent Alexander Shlemenko highlights to choose from.

Perrone carries that right hand loaded and ready to fire.

Random Land

Ouch.

Midnight Music: Synth pop, 2005

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

Jon Jones never misses an opportunity to take a shot at his old rival, Daniel Cormier.

The rivalry between all-time greats is one of the best in mixed martial arts (MMA) history, if not the best. Jones and Cormier’s volatility toward each other raised the sport and competitiveness between the two. Despite Jones getting the best of Cormier in their two-fight series with a 1-0, 1 no-contest score, he couldn’t help but recently downplay Cormier’s Light Heavyweight title reign.

Amid his Heavyweight title reign and a Twitter tirade about interim titlist, Tom Aspinall, Jones noted how fans have propped Aspinall up to be more valuable of a title challenger than he is. Even though Aspinall is literally in the position of a guaranteed undisputed title shot, Jones tweeted, “UFC is a brilliant company, did what they had to do to save the [UFC295] event. But I do agree, it definitely confused a bunch of U.K. fans, got them entitled thinking their boy really is the champion. It reminds me of when ‘D.C.’ was the ‘champion’ during my absence.”

Cormier couldn’t help but rebuke Jones’ notion with a splash of comparative truth.

“That’s not a real indication of what was going on,” Cormier responded on his YouTube channel. “Look guys, Jon is out due to injury, so Tom Aspinall is now the champion, I get that. But that’s not what was going on when he and I were fighting. He misrepresented what the situation was. Tom Aspinall isn’t the champion because of his absence, so much, he’s the champion because he was available. Won the belt when Jon got hurt, he beat me, so maybe I wouldn’t have been the champ? But he disqualified himself. It’s two different situations because right now, he injured himself. With me, he got caught doing things he’s not supposed to, and getting taken out of the competition.

“It’s not the same, although it may seem the same,” he continued. “He was incapable of competing when I was the champion. He wasn’t allowed to compete, not due to injury, due to illegal substances found in his body, that’s just the truth. That’s my response. Jones, it wasn’t the same thing, bud. So, no matter how quickly you are, and the magician you are at manipulating and saying this and the other, that’s not the case. It was different, you couldn’t compete whenever I was fighting. You couldn’t, you couldn’t make that decision to go and fight. I was the champion, for a really long time actually, which is kind of crazy.”

Cormier first became a UFC champion when Jones was removed from his UFC 187 Light Heavyweight title defense against Anthony Johnson after his infamous hit-and-run incident with a pregnant woman in early 2015. Consequently, Jones was stripped of his title by UFC. Cormier filled in and submitted Johnson with a third round rear-naked choke for the vacant crown.

The now-color commentator for UFC never technically lost the 205-pound title as he vacated it in 2018 after he won the Heavyweight title that same year. As referenced by Cormier, the second Jones fight initially saw Jones win via a second round knockout until he tested positive for banned substances and had the result overturned to a no contest. Therefore, returning the title to Cormier.

The build up to Jorge Masvidal’s combat sports return hasn’t been ideal for “Gamebred.”

Masvidal, 39, was originally scheduled to take on Nate Diaz in a boxing rematch of their November 2019 mixed martial arts (MMA) bout inside the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, California on June 1, 2024. However, after assessing the scheduling conflict with UFC 302 on that same night in Newark, New Jersey, the event was relocated to the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, and delayed until July 6, 2024.

“You don’t want to go up against other dates and other fight events,” Masvidal told ESPN. “Especially, you don’t want to go up against UFC. So, from the beginning, I was trying to switch this date. Nate’s a f—king idiot. He was adamant about staying on that date because he’s not a UFC employee no more and, ‘I don’t have to do nothing for the UFC,’ and this and that.

“It just doesn’t make sense, especially when I know Nate thinks he’s a boxer now because he boxed the Jake Paul guy, but he’s not a boxer,” he continued. “He doesn’t have a boxing fanbase. The fanbase that he has is from MMA and UFC. So, why go up against our own fanbase? Me as a promoter, I’m thinking I don’t even want to do it. I know a lot of fight fans would buy both or watch both events, but in my opinion, why even do it if there were dates that weren’t conflicting?”

Masvidal was openly displeased to be going up against UFC before the change happened. “Gamebred” noted how even one week earlier (Sat., May 25, 2024) was a perfectly open and acceptable date.

When Masvidal and Diaz collide for the second time in a combat sports contest, it will be Masvidal’s first appearance in action since his unanimous decision loss to Gilbert Burns in April 2023. Masvidal announced his retirement from MMA after the bout and has been promoting his Gamebred Bareknuckle promotion and the occasional boxing event since. Masvidal’s last victory came in his first clash with Diaz when he became the inaugural Baddest Motherf—ker (BMF) champion by earning a third round doctor’s stoppage technical knockout.

“I don’t like that another month and a week got added to this already long training camp,” Masvidal said. “In hindsight, it doesn’t really matter because I’m making the transition from one sport to another. So the more time I get to practice and perfect my craft, sharpen my tools, it doesn’t hurt me or bother me.

“Now, Nate Diaz’s ass is somebody that does bother me and I want to f—k him up,” he continued. “We could have had this fight at an earlier date but this guy’s such a f—king diva and a f—king coward that he wouldn’t want to fight in Miami, didn’t want to fight in Texas because things didn’t go his way in Texas against Jake Paul. Didn’t want to fight in New York. Didn’t want to fight in California unless it was in his hometown. I’m here pent up, frustrated, training my ass off every day just to get in there with this guy, and f—king hurt him.”

The build up to Jorge Masvidal’s combat sports return hasn’t been ideal for “Gamebred.”

Masvidal, 39, was originally scheduled to take on Nate Diaz in a boxing rematch of their November 2019 mixed martial arts (MMA) bout inside the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, California on June 1, 2024. However, after assessing the scheduling conflict with UFC 302 on that same night in Newark, New Jersey, the event was relocated to the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, and delayed until July 6, 2024.

“You don’t want to go up against other dates and other fight events,” Masvidal told ESPN. “Especially, you don’t want to go up against UFC. So, from the beginning, I was trying to switch this date. Nate’s a f—king idiot. He was adamant about staying on that date because he’s not a UFC employee no more and, ‘I don’t have to do nothing for the UFC,’ and this and that.

“It just doesn’t make sense, especially when I know Nate thinks he’s a boxer now because he boxed the Jake Paul guy, but he’s not a boxer,” he continued. “He doesn’t have a boxing fanbase. The fanbase that he has is from MMA and UFC. So, why go up against our own fanbase? Me as a promoter, I’m thinking I don’t even want to do it. I know a lot of fight fans would buy both or watch both events, but in my opinion, why even do it if there were dates that weren’t conflicting?”

Masvidal was openly displeased to be going up against UFC before the change happened. “Gamebred” noted how even one week earlier (Sat., May 25, 2024) was a perfectly open and acceptable date.

When Masvidal and Diaz collide for the second time in a combat sports contest, it will be Masvidal’s first appearance in action since his unanimous decision loss to Gilbert Burns in April 2023. Masvidal announced his retirement from MMA after the bout and has been promoting his Gamebred Bareknuckle promotion and the occasional boxing event since. Masvidal’s last victory came in his first clash with Diaz when he became the inaugural Baddest Motherf—ker (BMF) champion by earning a third round doctor’s stoppage technical knockout.

“I don’t like that another month and a week got added to this already long training camp,” Masvidal said. “In hindsight, it doesn’t really matter because I’m making the transition from one sport to another. So the more time I get to practice and perfect my craft, sharpen my tools, it doesn’t hurt me or bother me.

“Now, Nate Diaz’s ass is somebody that does bother me and I want to f—k him up,” he continued. “We could have had this fight at an earlier date but this guy’s such a f—king diva and a f—king coward that he wouldn’t want to fight in Miami, didn’t want to fight in Texas because things didn’t go his way in Texas against Jake Paul. Didn’t want to fight in New York. Didn’t want to fight in California unless it was in his hometown. I’m here pent up, frustrated, training my ass off every day just to get in there with this guy, and f—king hurt him.”