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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Darren Till has strong opinions about Dricus Du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya.

Earlier this week, “The Gorilla” offered his thoughts on a game plan for “Stylebender,” advising Adesanya to feint a lot then catch Du Plessis coming forward. The English striker faced off with Du Plessis in December 2022 during the South African’s rise to contention back, so he does have some basis for his strategy. At the same time, Till coughed up his third-straight UFC defeat via third-round submission to “Stillknocks” (watch highlights), a fact Du Plessis was quick to point out when Till revealed his master game plan.

Well, Till is putting his money where his mouth is! The former UFC contender posted on social media that he put a $ 50k bet on Adesanya. “Dricus is getting rawdogged,” Till wrote. “Easy money.”

Hopefully, this is a case of genuine belief rather than sour grapes. After all, Till has long been friendly — in an awkward, competitive sort of way — with Adesanya, whereas Du Plessis ejected him from the UFC roster in an ugly loss. Ultimately, we’ll find out tomorrow night (Aug. 17, 2024) at UFC 305 if Darren Till’s prediction is on the money.

As for Till, his next step in combat sports in unclear. Last month, Till made his professional boxing debut against Mohammad Mutie and won via a second round technical knockout (watch highlights) … but also got taken down in the process. He’s called out Mike Perry several times, but he also sounds unwilling to face Perry without gloves.

Insomnia

I don’t think anybody is overly impressed by Alex Pereira vs. Khalil Rountree. Obviously everyone will watch, myself included, but this is not a serious fight.

All this clip tells me is that Dominick Cruz has access to a good lawyer and/or is friends with the local police.

Dricus Du Plessis is establishing himself as the meanest bastard in press conference history. Don’t banter with “Stillknocks!”

Jiri Prochazka making friends with the Australian fauna.

Social media star IShowSpeed is known for impressive athletic achievements, but out-punching “Poatan” — even on an untrustworthy machine — is quite the feat.

Send Volk to the Olympics ASAP.

Paul Felder reflects on his wild war with Dan Hooker, an absolutely underrated banger.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

A picture-perfect overhand across the jab.

If you have anyone besides Georges St. Pierre ahead of Matt Hughes on your all-time Welterweight list … you’re wrong!

These old school Eddie Alvarez highlights are awesome!

Random Land

Interesting inventions.

Midnight Music: Alternative, 1988

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

MMAmania.com – All Posts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Craig Jones Invitational featured some slick finishes and surprising upsets in its inaugural edition Friday night in Las Vegas, setting the table for Saturday’s semifinal matches in the hunt for two $ 1 million checks at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.

The over 80kg semifinals will see Nicky Rod vs. Adam Bradley and Inacio Santos vs. Fellipe Andrew, and are scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET. The under 80kg semifinals feature Levi Jones-Leary vs. Lucas Barbosa and Kade Ruotolo vs. Andrew Tackett.

The heavier grapplers were the first to enter the arena to compete in the over 80kg division, and Nicky Rod was the star of field with a pair of rear-naked chokes against Max Gimenis and Owen Livesey. His opponent in the semifinal match will be Adam Bradley, who earned the spot after back-to-back split decisions against Kyle Boehm and Pat Downey.

Inacio Santos and Fellipe Andrew worked their way on the other side of the bracket with hard-fought victories.

Santos’ first win was a split decision against Pedro Alex, and he followed it up against one of the surprises of the night. Lucas Kanard had shocked the jiu-jitsu world in earlier that night with a 70-second finish against four-time IBJJF world champion Victor Hugo, but had no answer to Santos’ pressure from top position, losing via decision.

Andrew showed an aggressive guard against three-time NCAA All-American Daniel Kerkvliet, fighting smart to win a decision and move to the quarterfinals and face Brazilian heavyweight Joao Gabriel Rocha. A bloody Rocha gave him a hard time, but Andrew’s multiple attacks from the bottom earned him the unanimous decision win.

Tye Ruotolo had a great start in the under 80kg category, tapping decorate wrestler Jason Nolf with a kneebar in the third round after an electric contest, and Levi Jones-Leary was next to enter the mat to finish Roberto Jimenez fast with an inside heel hook.

Ruotolo had beat Jones-Leary twice in 2022, but struggled with his guard this time in their quarterfinal match. Jones-Leary aimed at his heel during the entire match and couldn’t secure a finish, but did enough to win via unanimous decision to advance to the semifinal match against Lucas Barbosa.

Barbosa kicked off his CJI journey with a lackluster decision win over Kenta Iwamoto and was down in the scorecards with less than 90 seconds left on the clock versus Jozef Chen before jumping for a brutal knee crush submission that forced Chen to tap.

Tye Ruotolo’s brother Kade Ruotolo got the job done on the other side of the bracket, locking a nasty straight ankle lock with seconds left in the opening round of his first match to tap fellow ADCC gold medalist Matheus Diniz. The ONE grappling champion then dominated Tommy Langaker in the quarterfinal match, scoring his third decision victory over Langaker in the past 14 months.

Ruotolo will face Andrew Tackett in the semifinal contest after the young American displayed an exciting grappling style in fun matches against Nicky Ryan and Eoghan O’Flanagan, winning both matches via decision. Like Kade, Andrew advances to the semifinal to keep the family name in the running for a $ 1 million prize after his brother loses in the over 80kg division.

The action will continue Saturday with the semifinal matches in both divisions, plus a pair of superfights featuring jiu-jitsu legend Gabi Garcia taking on CJI leader Craig Jones, and UFC star Mackenzie Dern battling fellow ADCC and IBJJF world champion Ffion Davies.

Click here for complete Craig Jones Invitational, Day 1 results.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Ex-UFC fighter Pat Barry often finds himself being accused of abusing his girlfriend, Rose Namajunas, while out and about. Of course, it doesn’t help that the former two-time titleholder often plays into it when concerned strangers attempt to broach the subject.

Barry and Namajunas, who have been a couple since the late 2000s, recently made an appearance together on the JAXXON podcast with Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson. Just as they were about to wrap up the interview, Jackson asked whether or not Barry had ever been accused of hitting Namajunas after she picked up bruises from training and fighting.

“I’ve got one last question because I’ve heard stories about this before,” Jackson said. “You being a fighter and a woman, have you ever had swelling or black eyes after a fight and people think he did it.”

Namajunas was quick to acknowledge that people have made that assumption. “Of course, all the time,” she replied with a smile.

Barry also chimed in, revealing that ‘Thug’ does little to dissuade people from thinking the worst.

“This has happened so much where we’ll go places and she’ll have a black eye or a bruise on her cheek or something and the waiter or waitresses will be like, ‘Oh no, what happened to your face,’ and Rose will reply, ‘He hit me.’ They’ll look at me and I’ll say, ‘Well, she didn’t block it.’

“But when it’s the other way around and I’ve got the black eye and we go somewhere and they say, ‘What happened’ and I say she hit me, she starts getting free dessert.

Barry went on to talk about how random people will regularly stop Namajunas to make sure she’s okay while the two of them are out for a run. Check out the full clip below:

Pat Barry and Rose namajunas’ relationship has been under scrutiny for years

The relationship between Barry and Namajunas has seen its fair share of scrutiny over the years, most of it revolving around the significant age gap between the two. Barry, 45, is 13 years older than Namajunas. While there’s little controversy to kick up regarding a 45-year-old man dating a 32-year-old woman, many have accused Barry of grooming Namajunas since her teenage years.

Earlier this year, outspoken middleweight star Sean Strickland perpetuated those claims when he dubbed Barry, ‘Pat the predator’ in response to a fan’s post on X.

Namajunas will be back in action on Saturday, November 2 when the UFC heads back to Edmonton for a Fight Night card in The Great White North. Thug’ will headline the event opposite Erin Blanchfield in a flyweight bout that could produce the division’s next title challenger.

LowKickMMA.com

The fighters competing on the UFC 305 fight card will take part in the event’s ceremonial weigh-in at 11 p.m. ET.  

The event takes place at RAC Arena and is headlined by a middleweight title bout between champion Dricus Du Plessis and former two-time titleholder Israel Adesanya. The event will mark the third trip for the fight promotion to Perth.

UFC 305 Ceremonial Weigh-In Video

MMAWeekly.com | UFC and MMA News, Results, Rumors, and Videos

UFC

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

MMA Fighting has UFC 305 results for the Du Plessis vs. Adesanya fight card, live blogs for the main card, and more from the RAC Arena in Perth, Australia,

In the main event, UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis will put his belt on the line against former UFC champion Israel Adesanya.

Flyweights Kai Kara-France and Steve Erceg will clash in the co-main event.

Check out UFC 305 results below.

Main card (ESPN+ PPV at 10 p.m. ET)

Dricus du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya

Kai Kara-France vs. Steve Erceg

Mateusz Gamrot vs. Dan Hooker

Tai Tuivasa vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik

Li Jingliang vs. Carlos Prates

Prelims (ESPN2/ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET)

Junior Tafa vs. Valter Walker

Joshua Culibao vs. Ricardo Ramos

Casey O’Neill vs. Luana Santos

Jack Jenkins vs. Herbert Burns

Prelims (ESPN+ at 6:30 p.m. ET)

Tom Nolan vs. Alex Reyes

Song Kenan vs. Ricky Glenn

Stewart Nicoll vs. Jesus Aguilar

MMA Fighting – All Posts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts