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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Like it or not, Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson is happening.

Scheduled for July 20 in Arlington, Texas and airing live on Netflix, the match up is not engendering a lot of good feelings from the boxing community. Paul is facing major criticism for pursuing a bout with a 57-year-old retired boxer. Nevertheless, the bout is happening, though it’s unclear whether or not it will go down as a professional contest.

Good thing the Texas Athletic Commission is famously incompetent.

Typically, training camps for combat sports athletes begin eight or 12 weeks removed from the event. July 20th is a fair bit more than three months away (I count about 19 weeks from today), but getting ready for a fight at 57 is different! Presumably, Tyson is going to ramp up his training more slowly than an athlete in his prime.

Whatever the case, Tyson looks fast and powerful in the short clip above, which sees him cracking pads with legendary MMA coach Rafael Cordeiro, who also helped him prepare for Roy Jones Jr in 2020.

Here’s hoping one of those left hooks land flush in July.

Insomnia

Colby Covington vs. Ian Garry? I would watch it, and it’s time for “Chaos” to fight down the ladder and defend his spot.

Tyson Pedro went broke fighting MMA, so now he’s headed back to the boxing ring.

I hope Francis Ngannou’s next move is a PFL debut, but I wouldn’t fault him for accepting another huge check to fight Deontay Wilder (or something like that).

Drop seonagi in nature!

I’d love to hear some other answers in the comments, but the obvious one that pops into my head is Nick Diaz laying on the canvas in front of Anderson Silva.

Cory Sandhagen seems personally offended that Marlon Vera received a title shot before him. His critique was unusually mean!

The kind of support you want in a corner.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

“MMA fighters will never have head movement like boxers!”

Cheick Kongo talks through arguably the greatest comeback KO in UFC history.

An excellent club and sub!

Random Land

I didn’t expect how this clip ended.

Midnight Music: Punk, 1981

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

MMAmania.com – All Posts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Former undisputed light heavyweight champion, Jiri Prochazka has hit out at incoming foe, Aleksandar Rakic ahead of their UFC 300 clash next month – with the Czech Republic native urging his fellow European to keep his thoughts to himself when it comes to his thoughts on the samurai and bushido code.

Prochazka, the current number two ranked light heavyweight contender, has been sidelined since he headlined UFC 295 back in November at Madison Square Garden.

Featuring for the first time since he won undisputed gold in a stunning fifth round submission over Glover Teixeira, Prochazka was stopped with a heavy second round knockout loss to Alex Pereira in the pair’s vacant title affair.

And booked to make his return at UFC 300 next month in Las Vegas, former Rizin FF champion, Prochazka takes on fellow European talent, Rakic in a potential title-eliminator.

Jiri Prochazka hits out at Aleksandar Rakic

Reacting to Rakic’s plans to exploit apparent “holds” in his own game, fan-favorite contender, Prochazka urged the Austrian contender to save his words and execute his intentions inside the Octagon inside.

“He’s (Aleksandar Rakic) a Serbian guy living in Austria,” Jiri Prochazka told The AllStar during a recent interview. “I don’t know him personally, so I don’t like to talk about him when you don’t know someone personally, you don’t know, you really don’t know. Every time I’m surprised when he’s talking about me [and] who I am. I’m not a samurai and all these things so, man, shut up. You know nothing about me, we will talk in the cage.”

“I never said I was [a] samurai,” Jiri Prochazka explained. “I’m just all the time speaking about bushido code and all these ideas from [the] samurai world and how it helped me to be the person as who I am and to live in this world and for me to have rules. I like the samurai attitude, to the fight but to the living to live a full life – life to the fullest. The samurai attitude is not – I’m using all these ideas and principles for fighting, for conflict situations for all these things and it’s not like I found that, it was already in me.” 

Sidelined since for almost two years time, Rakic most recently suffered a debilitating knee injury in a clash with former champion, Jan Blachowicz in a main event clash back in 2022.

Who wins at UFC 300 next month: Jiri Prochazka or Aleksandar Rakic?

LowKickMMA.com

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Marlon “Chito” Vera returned home from UFC 299 and found that someone had broken into his house while he was gone in Miami for a title shot against Sean O’Malley.

The veteran bantamweight revealed the news on social media along with a photo that shows a door that was forcefully smashed open for the burglars to enter his house.

“The f****** assh*** that broke into my home, I’m gonna find you,” Vera wrote on Instagram.

In a separate post on his Instagram stories, Vera offered some context to the robbery that took place at his home prior to his fight with O’Malley on Saturday night.

“The context is last night there was a robbery,” Vera said. “They broke into our house. Though they are material things, they are things that have been bought with a lot of effort and hard work. But hey, these types of things happen”

It’s unknown if Vera filed a report with police or if there’s any investigation underway regarding the break-in at his home. Vera also didn’t detail what exactly was taken from his home during the robbery.

It’s a tough end to an even tougher week for Vera after he suffered a lopsided unanimous decision loss to O’Malley in the UFC 299 main event this past Saturday night.

Despite showing off an iron chin and an unreal amount of durability, Vera absorbed a lot of punishment over five rounds before ultimately losing on the scorecards as O’Malley defended his title for the first time.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

UFC

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Kayla Harrison is fully prepared to make her UFC debut.

In many respects, she has been the face of the PFL since entering MMA in 2018. But in January, the two-time Olympic gold medalist signed with the UFC and was immediately booked to fight Holly Holm at UFC 300.

It’s a major change for Harrison, who has fought 16 of her 17 career fights inside the SmartCage, but speaking with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, she explained the decision.

“Of course [there was trepidation] – you think I’m crazy?” Harrison said. “It was definitely — it was a really hard time in my life. It was a really hard decision for me to make. I was really scared. I was really scared about all of it. The weight cut and the unknown.

“Whether I like it or not, this is a totally new beast to me. Yes, it’s MMA, but at the PFL, I started with them. I was with them before they were the PFL. I grew with them. I know everybody, everybody knows me. I know that animal. I’ve been there. It’s comfortable, it’s familiar. Fighting is never safe, but it’s probably as safe as it can get. And this is not that. This is not that. …

“I’m excited. I feel like I’m ready for a new challenge. I’m ready for a new chapter. I don’t have a ton of years left fighting. I think that I’m a two-time Olympic champion, I’m a two-time PFL champion, I have plenty of money in the bank. When I started MMA, I wanted to be UFC champion. That’s not a knock on the PFL — it didn’t even exist then — but when I started in MMA, the goal was to be UFC champion. Along the way the goal might have changed a little bit, and I might have felt like it wasn’t as necessary, but I want to be UFC champion.”

Of course, the move to the UFC is not the only major change for Harrison. The two-time PFL champion fought almost her entire MMA career at 155 pounds, but in the UFC she will compete at 135 pounds. It’s a big drop, and one that she previously said would require her to “lose a piece” of herself to accomplish.

But now one month out from the fight, things seem to be going well.

“I’m at about 150 pounds,” Harrison revealed to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour.

“Life is still good,” she continued. “It’s chosen suffering. We all make sacrifices, we all have to pay now or pay later, but eventually we all pay. This is something that I’m willing to sacrifice for. This is something I signed on the dotted line for. It’s my responsibility, it’s my duty.

“Does it suck sometimes when it’s Friday night, and I order pizza for my kids? Yeah, of course. ‘Just one slice!’ You have those voices in your head. [Laughs]. But overall, I feel good. My body feels good, my mind is clear, my heart is wide open and ready for the future, and all of the excitement that’s building. I’m fueled, I’m hydrated, life is good.”

Harrison added that the option of competing at 145 pounds was never on the table during the UFC discussions, but she wasn’t too bothered by that.

Harrison seems supremely confident that weight will not be an issue come April.

“I’m a professional,” she said. “My life is not — I think that people have this misconception that because I fought at 155 pounds for so long that maybe I walk around at 180 pounds or something. But the max I get is 165. I just didn’t cut weight. I don’t love it. I don’t agree with it. I don’t think it sends the right message to kids, and I think it’s probably pretty unhealthy and not safe. But I’m doing it the right way. … I’m a well-oiled machine at this point, and I feel really good. Training is going great. I feel like I’m hitting my stride, I’m about to hit my peak. It’s all coming together.”

And Harrison says that portends bad things for Holly Holm. Because aside from the new promotion and the new weight class, there’s one more new thing for Harrison at UFC 300: She’ll finally be allowed to use elbows. The two-time PFL champion intends to show Holm just how big that change is for her.

“I think, realistically, we’re going to get a nice takedown, and then people are going to see what Kayla Harrison can do with some f****** elbows,” Harrison said. “Some real ground and pound. I’m excited.”

UFC 300 takes place on April 13 in Las Vegas.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Top bantamweight contender Merab Dvalishvili thinks it’s time for champion Sean O’Malley to start promoting a fight between the two.  After all, UFC CEO Dana White said Dvalishvili is next in line for a title shot.  

Dvalishvili (17-4) is riding a 10-fight winning streak and coming off a one-sided win over former champion Henry Cejudo.  Prior to the win over “Triple C,” Dvalishvili defeated former champion Petr Yan.  

“I know I’m fighting for the belt next,” Dvalishvili told The Schmo.  “Sean O’Malley, you’ve got to promote this fight bro.  This fight is big.  We all know, but he has to keep talking about this fight because he’s going to fight me and we’ve got to promote this fight.” 

“He’s very technical, footwork.  His reach works.  He’s working and getting better and look at him as a good challenge.  He’s a dangerous opponent for me,” Dvalishvili continued.  “As a fighter I have so much respect for him, but we all have to find out.  This is MMA.  We all see a kickboxing fight last Saturday.  That was like an all strikes fight.  He did very good.  He did very good against grapplers before.  Let’s see how he’s going to do with me.  I’m the next guy.  We all know.”

Both Dvalishvili and O’Malley are targeting a UFC 306 return on Mexican Independence Day at the Sphere in Las Vegas.  

“We are the two best guys in the division.  He’s champion.  I’m number one.  We all know I have a 10-fight win streak and let’s find out.  Let’s give people what they want,” Dvalishvili said.  

“I’m just going to fight.  I’m just going to do my best,” he continued.  “I’m ready for everything.  I’m getting better everywhere, even striking, grappling, jiu-jitsu.  I put in a lot of hard work and we’ll see.  I’m ready.  Don’t be surprised.  I may knock him out.  He’s very confident and I have some skills and I’m getting better.  I can knock him out.”

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