Photo by Brandon Magnus/DWTNCS

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Contenders Series was very different animal back in 2017.

Six years ago, it wasn’t the sole source of most new UFC talent. As a result, a win alone was nowhere near enough to guarantee a UFC contract. In fact, an exciting win wasn’t even a guarantee, nor was a finish. Something spectacular was needed, as usually only a couple contracts where handed out each week as opposed to five.

Another big difference was that UFC didn’t know what it wanted the show to be yet. Whereas nowadays there’s very little difference in production between a UFC “Fight Night” card at the Apex and regular ol’ Contenders Series Tuesday, the promotion was still experimenting. One of those experiments was the Snoopcast, an alternative commentary option provided by UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber and west coast rap legend Snoop D.O. Double G.

Sadly, there was some controversy regarding the SnoopCast. Snoop Dogg may be a fight fan, but his enthusiasm didn’t make up for ignorance of the rules, and he could get a bit disrespectful to some of the debuting athletes. As a result, the Snoopcast did not survive to season two.

However, we still have to give Snoop Dogg credit as the first man aboard the Sean O’Malley hype train. He went wild for O’Malley’s first-round knockout win over Alfred Khashakyan, the victory that earned him a UFC contract, and deemed him a future champion.

Snoop was right!

Over the weekend (Sat., Aug. 19, 2023), “Suga” smoked Aljamain Sterling via second-round knockout at UFC 292 to become undisputed champion of the world. In the video above, O’Malley shared a congratulatory message from the hip-hop star, who exclaimed, “Great f—king win champ! The ‘Suga’ show starts now. You made me some money last night nephew, good s—t.”

Insomnia

Ladies and gentleman, the UFC Bantamweight champion of the world:

This is an understated Bantamweight banger: two young talents without huge names, but they definitely can fight!

It’s not every day an athlete SPRAYS blood like this!

I am fully aboard the Rinat Fakhretdinov hype train. Are you?

MMA fighters and nudity are a classic pairing. One cannot cut weight without exposing themselves to all their buddies!

Fun fighter animations! If you’re like me and couldn’t identify the new one, the answer is in the replies.

Great breakdown of great defense! Another key note is that Weili kept her head high and/or near the armpit, whereas a ninja choke usually traps the head beneath the center of the chest.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Both of these gentleman were throwing heat, and yup, somebody goes airborne!

Being really precise is a difficult skill to learn with striking, but it can massively pay off.

A sweep with bonus style points:

Random Land

High art!

Midnight Music: Stoner metal, 2006

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