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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Those unprofessional media scumbags are at it again!

Per the latest official UFC rankings — which are voted upon by UFC selected members of MMA media — Heavyweight champion Jon Jones is currently the third best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet. He sits behind fellow champions Islam Makhachev and Alex Pereira in that order.

Pound-for-pound rankings will always be an endless source of debate, but the logic here is fairly simple: Makhachev and Pereira are actively winning fights and putting on high-level performances. Jones, conversely, has been away so long that there’s an interim champion racking up title defenses. He’s won just once in the last four years, so he loses points based on activity despite being nearly unbeaten as a professional throughout his entire remarkable career.

UFC CEO Dana White disagrees. Strongly. During his recent interview with Kevin Iole, White talked extensively about the Heavyweight title picture, asserting that interim champion Tom Aspinall deserves nothing and can wait as long as Jones vs. Stipe Miocic requires. While discussing Jones, White brought up the recent pound-for-pound snub and positively unloaded on the whole situation.

It’s a rant for the ages.

“Jon Jones is ranked number three pound-for-pound in the world,” a smoldering White began. “The most fucking ridiculous, embarrassing, stupid, no-nothing-about-f—king-fighting ranking of all f—king time. Jon Jones is the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world, period, end of story. To have anybody above Jon Jones right now just goes to show that you know absolutely f—king nothing. It’s undebatable!

“Anyone who even tries to debate this with me, you’re just hating on Jon Jones, and you don’t like him as a person. These are f—king facts. It’s not like me and Jon Jones have this unbelievable relationship. What I am saying about Jon Jones is undebatable: the baddest dude to ever walk the face of the Earth in combat sports.”

Jones is expected to return to action in November opposite Stipe Miocic. If he’s victorious in impressive fashion, another win might be enough to elevate him back up to the top spot on the pound-for-pound list.

If not, expect to hear about it.

Insomnia

A bit of showmanship from Thailand.

Belal Muhammad gets a shoutout from fellow UFC veteran CM Punk!

Megan Olivi is moving up in the world of NFL broadcasting.

Francis Ngannou on the silver screen! Or at least, the Netflix equivalent.

Canelo Alvarez breaks down Shakur Stevenson vs. Gervonta Davis and offers his prediction.

Speaking of Canelo, Conor McGregor is not impressed with his drawing potential … despite Alvarez making way more money per bout.

Okay, maybe Deiveson Figueiredo did NOT become the first man to drop Marlon Vera.

Dricus Du Plessis politely putting a fan on the floor with a body shot:

Slick head movement is so satisfying.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

ROLLING THUNDER!

A phone booth KO off the initial flurry:

Fatigued, stuck on the fence, eating knees is a bad way to be.

Random Land

An impressive collection of critters.

Midnight Music: Indie, 2013

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

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Angela Lee was always among the list of fighters that mixed martial arts (MMA) fans wanted to see in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) one day.

The former ONE Championship 115-pound Atomweight champion made history when she became the youngest fighter in MMA history to hold a major world title. Lee, 28, captured gold at age 19 when she earned a unanimous decision over her veteran counterpart, Mei Yamaguchi, in May 2016. The fight would be the first of several all-time classics Lee had in her epic 14-fight career (11-3).

Unfortunately for fans, Lee retired after the tragic loss of her younger sister, Victoria Lee, in 2023. In reflection, “Unstoppable” admits she always thought about what it would have been like to have any of her fights outside of the ONE cage, specifically in UFC.

“I think if you ask any fighter, any champion, they wanna go out and test themselves,” Lee told Demetrious Johnson. “That’s what it means to be a fighter. You’re always looking for the next challenge. If you ask any of them, yes, 100 percent, they would love to go and fight the best of the best and really find out who was No. 1.

“It’s come across my mind multiple times, of course, seeing the top-level fighters in other organizations,” she continued. “Looking back now, it’s really hard because when you’re in the organization, especially at the top, it’s such a scary thing to go out and jump ship or try.”

Lee successfully defended her Atomweight title five times before she left MMA. In that time, she went through several troubles outside the cage, mentally and physically, along with becoming a mother. The final nail in her career’s coffin was simply admitting her passion was no longer what it once was.

“I told myself, I love it, I love it, I love it, for so long,” Lee said. “After a while, I wasn’t really honest with myself about like, ‘Hey, I think I might be getting burnt out. Hey, this is not really fun anymore. I want a break.’ But I didn’t know how to or … I did voice it up to my team and my family, but there was some disagreement about, ‘Hey, this is not really the time to do that and this and that.’”

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UFC Vegas 95, which airs on both ESPN and ESPN+, just lost another main card matchup, marking the promotion’s fourth lineup change ahead of this weekend’s (Sat., Aug. 10, 2024) return to the UFC APEX facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.

UFC newcomer Quang Le will replace bounced bantamweight Javid Basharat to challenge 135-pound veteran Chris Gutierrez in the UFC Vegas 95 co-main event. In addition, Dana White’s “Contender Series” standout Nikolay Veretennikov steps in for Uros Medic to lock horns with Danny Barlow at 170 pounds.

Jonny Parsons was yanked from his welterweight bout with Yusaku Kinoshita, but no replacement could be secured in time and their contest was scrapped altogether. Joining them on the list of canceled fights is the flyweight showdown pitting Allan Nascimento against Jafel Filho, thanks to a late illness suffered by Nascimento.

We still have four days to go and everyone has to make weight, so this latest iteration of the “Tybura vs. Spivac 2” lineup is hardly a guarantee. For the current UFC Vegas 95 fight card and ESPN/ESPN+ bout order click here.

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Undefeated bantamweight sensation Umar Nurmagomedov secured the next crack at the 135-pound title by turning away longtime contender Cory Sandhagen as part of the UFC Abu Dhabi mixed martial arts (MMA) event last weekend on ABC. His performance was good enough to land Nurmagomedov at No. 2 in the bantamweight rankings, right below wrestling phenom Merab Dvalishvili, who battles Sean O’Malley for the division strap at Noche UFC next month in Las Vegas.

This week’s official rankings update also saw Deiveson Figueiredo crack the bantamweight Top 5 after his unanimous decision victory over former title challenger Marlon Vera. “Chito” slipped three spots to No. 7 in the wake of his UFC Abu Dhabi loss, his second straight. You’ll notice some unusual activity in several weight classes, like ties and movement from fighters who didn’t compete in recent weeks, which suggests the rankings panel was missing some voters for this latest update.

Here’s how UFC compiles its official rankings:

Rankings were generated by a voting panel made up of media members. The media members were asked to vote for who they feel are the top fighters in the UFC by weight-class and pound-for-pound. A fighter is only eligible to be voted on if they are in active status in the UFC. A fighter can appear in more than one weight division at a time. The champion and interim champion are considered to be in the top positions of their respective divisions and therefore are not eligible for voting by weight-class. However, the champions can be voted on for the pound-for-pound rankings.

Take a look at what the latest rankings field looks like courtesy of UFC.com. Note: (+/- = movement in rankings, T = tie, *NR = Not previously ranked).

MEN’S POUND-FOR-POUND

1. Islam Makhachev
2. Alex Pereira
3. Jon Jones
4. Ilia Topuria
5. Belal Muhammad +1
6. Sean O’Malley -1
7. Leon Edwards
8. Alexander Volkanovski
9. Tom Aspinall
10. Max Holloway
11. Dricus Du Plessis
12. Alexandre Pantoja
13. Israel Adesanya
14. Sean Strickland
15. Charles Oliveira

FLYWEIGHT

Champion: Alexandre Pantoja

1. Brandon Royval
2. Brandon Moreno
3. Amir Albazi
4. Kai Kara France
5. Tatsuro Taira
6. Alex Perez
7. Steve Erceg
8. Matheus Nicolau
9. Manel Kape
10. Tim Elliott
11. Matt Schnell
12. Tagir Ulanbekov
13. Bruno Silva
14. Asu Almabayev
15. Cody Durden

BANTAMWEIGHT

Champion: Sean O’Malley

1. Merab Dvalishvili
2. Umar Nurmagomedov +8
3. Petr Yan
4. Cory Sandhagen -2
5. Deiveson Figueiredo +1
6. Henry Cejudo -1
7. Marlon Vera -3
8. Song Yadong -1
9. Jose Aldo -1
10. Rob Font -1
11. (T) Kyler Phillips
11. (T) Mario Bautista +1
13. Dominick Cruz
14. Jonathan Martinez
15. Montel Jackson

FEATHERWEIGHT

Champion: Ilia Topuria

1. Alexander Volkanovski
2. Max Holloway
3. Brian Ortega
4. Yair Rodriguez
5. Arnold Allen
6. Movsar Evloev -1
7. Josh Emmett
8. Aljamain Sterling
9. Calvin Kattar
10. Giga Chikadze
11. Lerone Murphy
12. (T) Diego Lopes
12. (T) Bryce Mitchell +1
14. Dan Ige
15. Edson Barboza

LIGHTWEIGHT

Champion: Islam Makhachev

1. Arman Tsarukyan
2. Charles Oliveira
3. Justin Gaethje
4. Dustin Poirier
5. Mateusz Gamrot
6. Michael Chandler
7. Beneil Dariush
8. Rafael Fiziev
9. Max Holloway
10. Renato Moicano
11. Dan Hooker
12. Benoit Saint-Denis
13. Rafael dos Anjos +1
14. Jalin Turner -1
15. Paddy Pimblett

WELTERWEIGHT

Champion: Belal Muhammed

1. Leon Edwards
2. Kamaru Usman
3. Shavkat Rakhmonov
4. Colby Covington
5. Jack Della Maddalena
6. Gilbert Burns
7. Ian Machado Garry
8. Sean Brady
9. Stephen Thompson
10. Geoff Neal
11. Joaquin Buckley
12. Neil Magny
13. Vicente Luque
14. Michael Page
15. Kevin Holland

MIDDLEWEIGHT

Champion: Dricus Du Plessis

1. Sean Strickland
2. Israel Adesanya
3. Robert Whittaker
4. Nassourdine Imavov
5. Jared Cannonier
6. Marvin Vettori
7. Brendan Allen
8. Paulo Costa
9. Jack Hermansson
10. Roman Dolidze
11. Khamzat Chimaev
12. Caio Borralho
13. Michel Pereira
14. Anthony Hernandez
15. Chris Curtis

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT

Champion: Alex Pereira

1. Jiri Prochazka
2. Magomed Ankalaev
3. Jamahal Hill
4. Jan Blachowicz
5. Aleksandar Rakic
6. (T) Nikita Krylov
6. (T) Volkan Oezdemir +1
8. Khalil Rountree
9. Johnny Walker
10. Carlos Ulberg
11. Azamat Murzakanov +3
12. Anthony Smith -1
13. Bogdan Guskov -1
14. Dominick Reyes -1
15. Roman Dolidze *NR

HEAVYWEIGHT

Champion: Jon Jones

1. Tom Aspinall
2. Ciryl Gane
3. Alexander Volkov
4. Sergei Pavlovich
5. Curtis Blaydes
6. Stipe Miocic
7. Jailton Almeida
8. Marcin Tybura
9. Serghei Spivac
10. Tai Tuivasa
11. Derrick Lewis
12. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
13. Alexandr Romanov
14. Marcos Rogerio De Lima
15. Rodrigo Nascimento

WOMEN’S POUND-FOR-POUND

1. Alexa Grasso
2. Zhang Weili
3. Valentina Shevchenko
4. Manon Fiorot
5. (T) Julianna Pena
5. (T) Raquel Pennington +1
7. Rose Namajunas
8. Erin Blanchfield
9. Tatiana Suarez
10. Yan Xiaonan
11. Jessica Andrade
12. Kayla Harrison
13. Virna Jandiroba
14. Ketlen Vieira
15. Amanda Lemos

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT

Champion: Zhang Weili

1. Tatiana Suarez
2. Yan Xiaonan
3. Virna Jandiroba
4. Jessica Andrade
5. Amanda Lemos
6. Marina Rodriguez
7. Amanda Ribas +1
8. Mackenzie Dern -1
9. Angela Hill
10. Loopy Godinez
11. Tabatha Ricci
12. Luana Pinheiro
13. Gillian Robertson
14. Iasmin Lucindo
15. Karolina Kowalkiewicz

WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT

Champion: Alexa Grasso

1. Valentina Shevchenko
2. Manon Fiorot
3. Erin Blanchfield
4. Maycee Barber
5. Rose Namajunas
6. Jessica Andrade
7. Katlyn Cerminara
8. Natalia Silva
9. Viviane Araújo +1
10. Amanda Ribas -1
11. Karine Silva
12. Tracy Cortez
13. Ariane Da Silva
14. Jasmine Jasudavicius
15. Casey O’Neill

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT

Champion: Raquel Pennington

1. Julianna Pena
2. Ketlen Vieira
3. Kayla Harrison
4. Irene Aldana
5. Macy Chiasson
6. Mayra Bueno Silva
7. Holly Holm
8. (T) Karol Rosa
8. (T) Norma Dumont +2
8. (T) Miesha Tate +1
11. Pannie Kianzad
12. Yana Santos
13. Julia Avila
14. Chelsea Chandler
15. Germaine De Randamie

You can expect these rankings to change around this time next week, particularly in the heavyweight division, following the UFC Vegas 95: “Tybura vs. Spivac 2” mixed martial arts (MMA) event on ESPN and ESPN+, scheduled for Sat., Aug. 10, 2024 at APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.

For much more on that upcoming fight card click here.

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Just a week or so after a failed assassination attempt on Jake Paul’s boxing life, “The Problem Child” has avoided another major trap at the hands of his enemies.

During a recent appearance on the Full Send Podcast, Paul was forced to answer some difficult questions from the Nelk Boys about fighter pay. It felt like a bit of a setup: the Nelk Boys are famously (and controversially) buddy-buddy with UFC CEO Dana White, who Paul has been feuding with since the inception of his combat sports career. First, Paul was asked about the fight purses on his own boxing undercards and how those match ups are booked.

He explained, “It’s pretty difficult. We have so many requests, so many fights. Mostly, we want to help young prospects, we want big names, then we want crossover fights like Uriah Hall vs. [Julio Cesar Chavez Jr] … We pay people the most they’ve ever gotten paid pretty much every card. It depends who or what their name is, but it could range anywhere from 40,000 to 1.5 million.”

The Nelk Boys response was to question why there wasn’t an opportunity for bonus pay, like the UFC fighter bonuses. Paul’s response was that he doesn’t have the funds of UFC and Dana White, and pointed out his issue with the multi-billion dollar company’s percentage of revenue that goes to the athletes.

He continued, “We’re not a $ 6 billion company. That’s my gripe with it is the UFC is making billions and billions of dollars, but still only paying the fighters 12% of the income.”

The debate shifted a bit from there, as Nelk Boys weighed the value of the UFC’s more consistent opportunity against the larger dollar figure. Paul mentioned that he also signs athletes to multi-fight contracts and pointed to Amanda Serrano as an example, but he’s certainly employing fewer athletes for fewer fights than the world’s biggest MMA promotion.

Insomnia

This accurate description of Deiveson Figueiredo made me chuckle.

I expect Kyler Phillips rise to continue with this match up.

Guram Kutateladze has trouble stringing UFC wins together, but the guy consistently does cool things inside the Octagon. It’s easy to be a fan!

Marvin Vettori vs. Shara Magomedov has been discussed previously, and the Italian still wants the fight.

I like this post-UFC Abu Dhabi fan booking quite a bit. The two biggest Lightweights collide!

Payton Talbott has now hung out with Tony Hawke and Frank Ocean — rocket ship to stardom confirmed?

A nice breakdown of Umar Nurmagomedov’s kickboxing success against Cory Sandhagen:

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Heel to the chin! Can a spin kick land any cleaner?

Same side head kick claims another victim, but the celebration might be the most notable part of this win.

This brutally one-sided fight makes for a rather good couple summer for the Rosas brothers!

Random Land

Unique bridges.

Midnight Music: Folk rock, 1974

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

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The teams between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili have a history.

Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) Bantamweight title has only belonged to two men since UFC 259 in March 2021. While the former champion, Aljamain Sterling, historically saw his title reign begin in controversy via a fourth round disqualification, it ended definitively. The latter came thanks to a second round technical knockout from O’Malley at UFC 292 in August 2023 (watch highlights).

Bad blood boiled over between O’Malley and Sterling during their build, dripping onto the top contender waiting in the wings, Dvalishvili. “The Machine” now gets his chance to take the strap from O’Malley when they collide at Noche UFC next month (Sat., Sept. 14, 2024). However, Dvalishvil, Sterling, and O’Malley’s coach, Tim Welch, have all gotten into verbal exchanges online in recent weeks, keeping the feud alive and well.

“Initially, I thought it was because I said we’re going to target his nose in an interview, which isn’t a lie,” Welch told Submission Radio (h/t MMA Fighting). “I mean, it’s not a lie. I’ve never really said fighting words to those guys. But then Merab tweeted out and said, ‘Next time I see you, I’m going to take care of it,’ or something. And it’s like, come on, brother. I haven’t trained martial arts my whole life for a little 5-foot-4 guy to try to punk me out. I’ve trained my whole life and I’m only 34 years old. I’m six foot, 195 pounds. It’s like, alright, alright, well, we’ll see what happens.

“But that’s that’s besides the point,” he continued. “This is a huge fight. We got the No. 1 contender versus the champion of the world. That fight is going to happen 100 percent. ‘Sugar Show’ versus Merab, and we’re preparing and we’re more dialed in than we’ve ever been because Merab does pose a serious, serious threat.”

Sterling will more than likely be in the corner for Dvalishvili’s big opportunity. Had the pair not been best friends and longtime teammates, they’d have battled it out as one of Sterling’s title defenses.

Despite successfully moving to Featherweight after his title loss, Sterling has admitted to “saltiness” on occasion towards O’Malley or about the loss. From Welch’s perspective, their recent and continued spats are only evidence that that still exists.

“I think they’re still bitter,” Welch said. “They let the little curly-haired, funny guy who makes all these videos, who has tattoos on his face — Sean flat-lined [Sterling]. Sean punched him and dropped bombs on him, forced him to turtle up. You’ve got this world championship on the line and you’re fighting the ‘Sugar Show,’ I’m glad you were thinking about fighting me and not the fight you are in.”

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I guess they’re not “good friends” after all.

The way UFC welterweight veteran Colby Covington talks about Donald Trump and his “dragon energy” is borderline creepy, which is probably why his fellow welterweights want “Chaos” to “grow up and go get a girlfriend.”

Despite the constant outpouring of love, and even a few convenient photo ops, the 36 year-old Covington was edged out by former lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, 35, who was Trump’s first pick for favorite UFC fighter.

“I think Khabib, I mean how good was he?” Trump told Adin Ross. “I don’t think he ever lost a round.”

Covington, however, is 0-3 in welterweight title fights.

Nurmagomedov (29-0) retired from competition after submitting Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 back in late 2020 but frequently returns to corner his friends and family, like undefeated bantamweight sensation Umar Nurmagomedov.

Covington (17-4) has not competed since losing to Leon Edwards last December.

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The lightweight champion is still looking for a more interesting opponent than current No. 1 contender Arman Tsarukyan.

Lightweight champion Islam Makhachev is once again picking on featherweight fighters.

Since winning the 155 pound belt, Makhachev has fought former 145 pound champion Alexander Volkanovski twice, and now he says he’s open to fighting another 145er in Max Holloway.

Holloway is scheduled to fight Ilia Topuria in the main event of UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi — a card that was originally supposed to feature Makhachev vs. Arman Tsarukyan. But an Islam hand injury scrapped that, and now Mak sees Max as a potential better option than Arman.

“Why not?” he said of a Holloway fight at a recent Q&A session. “I already beat Arman. If UFC puts him next, that’s no problem. But, I’m not excited much [by Tsarukyan]. I need new name, new challenger. I already beat Arman.”

“If Max wants, let’s do it. I don’t need his BMF belt, but Max is a good name. It’s going to be a crazy fight for the fans. If he beats Topuria — this is a hard match-up for him. If he beats him and UFC wants this match? Let’s go.”

It seems like Makhachev is always willing to challenge these smaller fighters with bigger names, rather than discuss fights at his own weight class. It’s something Max Holloway has called him out for in the past.

“I saw Islam talk about, ‘Oh, this fight makes no sense,’ and blah, blah, blah,” Max said leading up to UFC 300. “Brother, you should’ve fought Justin in February.”

That being said, Holloway does has his eye on Makhachev’s belt.

“If I can go out there and get my hand raised like we plan on doing, there’s a lot of fights that can be there for us. And one of them being the 155 champ, which I think would be a fun one.”

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This weekend’s card has taken a significant hit.

UFC Vegas 95 from the UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas, Neavada goes down this weekend (Sat., Aug. 10, 2024); however, it has lost its Bantamweight co-main event. Sources have informed MMAMania.com that Chris Gutierrez vs. Javid Basharat is canceled.

Many believed that Gutierrez vs. Basharat was the best fight on the card, and because of that, the card is very weak.

Basharat is highly regarded as one of the best prospects in the UFC at the moment, and a fight against a former-ranked fighter would have been a great test.

Former top 15 Bantamweight Gutierrez is coming off a main event loss to Song Yadong at UFC Vegas 83. He holds an 8-3-1 record in the promotion.

Basharat is also coming off a loss to Aiemann Zahabi, which was his first professional loss. Prior to that, “The Snow Leopard” fought to a no-contest against Victor Henry.

With the loss, UFC Vegas 95 continues forth with 11 fights.

Marcin Tybura vs. Serghei Spivac
Damon Jackson vs. Chepe Mariscal
Yana Santos vs. Chelsea Chandler
Allan Nascimento vs. Jafel Filho
Toshiomi Kazama vs. Charalampos Grigoriou
Yusaku Kinoshita vs. TBD
Karol Rosa vs. Pannie Kianzad
Jhonata Diniz vs. Karl Williams
Youssef Zalal vs. Jarno Errens
Stephanie Luciano vs. Talita Alencar

The former UFC flyweight contender is desperately trying to mend fences with management after they announced they weren’t going to offer him a new contract.

Muhammad Mokaev is in a very strange place right now, career-wise. The 24 year old flyweight is 13-0 and has the potential to be a future champion. But it won’t be with the UFC, because they decided not to re-sign him after he fought out his contract at UFC 304.

Not only did they let him go, they buried him on the way out. Mokaev previously claimed UFC matchmakers had complained to him about his wrestling-heavy fighting style. But UFC CEO Dana White stated “It’s a lot more than just that,” when announcing Mokaev’s departure.

“The matchmakers aren’t big fans of his for many different reasons,” he said.

Mokaev caused a big stir during UFC 304 fight week after he sucker-punched his opponent Manel Kape at the fighter hotel. The two continued to nearly brawl at every opportunity for the next few days … only to have a terrible fight in the cage.

Was that the last straw for UFC management? Mokaev seems to think so. In a new interview with MMA Junkie he said he’d offered to fight for free to make amends.

“I said to Hunter Campbell, whatever I’ve done at the hotel, I’m ready to pay for that and fight my next fight in the UFC for free,” he said. “Whatever trouble I make, I think it’s unprofessional, but it’s something that was in my heart for a long time – I had to get rid of it. And I think I’ve taken a big lesson. I want to come back to UFC and hopefully I will be back.”

There were rumors that the real source of strife with Mokaev stemmed from him fielding offers from PFL. Mokaev denied any talks and suggested someone was passing false information to White.

“I think between Dana there’s been a misunderstanding,” he said. “I don’t know where he got this PFL talks … I think someone does something behind my back, it’s not going to come out of nowhere with PFL.

“I don’t even see competition between the PFL and UFC,” Mokaev added. “The UFC is the best organization in the world, and I never spoke to the PFL. They don’t even have a flyweight [division], so I don’t understand. Even at the post-fight interview, I asked for a new contract because I want to fight the best in the world.”

Mokaev was in Abu Dhabi to watch UFC on ABC: Sandhagen vs. Nurmagomedov, but there’s no hint that he’s managed to soften the UFC’s clearly negative opinion of him. That leaves him with few good options, which may be why he’s working so hard to make peace with his former promoter.

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