Midnight Mania! Edwards Wants Woodley In London

Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

It’s about time for the martial arts world as a whole to take Leon Edwards (18-3) seriously as a Welterweight title contender. The well-rounded Englishman has picked up eight consecutive victories, rarely struggling in any of those wins opposite increasingly elite competition. Despite his success, Edwards has struggled to gain real momentum in a division preoccupied by crappy trash talk, the BMF title, and long-retired former Strikeforce champions.

In calling out former champion Tyron Woodley (19-4) for the planned UFC event in London, England on March 21st, 2020, Edwards has the right idea. Woodley is stuck in a purgatory of his own, a dominant champion prior to getting absolutely smothered and abused by current kingpin Kamaru Usman. It’s been nearly nine months since Woodley lost his strap, and he’s largely been content to sit on the sidelines and hope for a rematch.

That doesn’t seem likely to happen, but it would be much harder to deny “T-Wood” were he to end Edwards’ win streak. For either man, a win would help improve his chances of being next in line for 170 lbs. gold.

Insomnia

Some sweet fan art for the recently announced Jon Jones vs. Dominick Reyes title bout:

I have a hard time seeing this end any way other than a Derrick Lewis knockout, but I’m still happy to see LATDOG join the Heavyweight ranks.

“Bigi Boy” has big plans.

Petr Yan sparring videos are intimidating.

Not sure what the end goal of this production is, but it’s funny to see Forest Griffin back in the cage with Francis Ngannou.

38-year-old Frenchman Nordine Taleb will be retiring soon. I always appreciated his classic Muay Thai combo of hard teeps and low kicks.

I am dizzy.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

2019 has provided us with some excellent spinning knockouts.

Picture-perfect counter combo against the left kick:

Judo rules are confusing, but this is a crazy comeback nonetheless.

Random Land

Deserved.

Don’t be mad film buffs, this is funny.

Midnight Music: Also released last Friday, I checked out DJ Shadow’s — Sacramento stand up! — latest LP, Our Pathetic Age. It’s a double album split evenly between instrumentals and featured rappers, and I thought both halves were pretty decent and worth checking out for hip hop fans.

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