Midnight Mania! Pic: Reyes’ Legs Severely Bruised Post-UFC 247

Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Often overlooked in the analysis of fights and fighters is just how much fighting hurts. Pain is rarely a conscious issue on the mind of fighters during a bout, but there are definite consequences to getting whacked on the nose or cracked in the ribs. Such consequences often come in the form of rash decision-making or sudden energy expenditure, which can lead to further pain.

In particular, kicks hurt quite a bit — often for both men. A hard kick will be felt by the kicked man both in the moment and on the next day. If, however, it happens to to land with the foot or slam into an inopportune surface like the knee or elbow, the kicking fighter can expect to walk with a limp too.

The point of this spiel? A five-round battle like the one Jon Jones and Dominick Reyes endured does not feel good, particularly when one considers just how often Jones kicks. Reyes’ leg looks vaguely like it was run over by an ATV, and there’s no doubt Jones is sporting some war wounds as well.

Respect to both combatants!

Insomnia

Diego Sanchez vs. Michel Pereira has a high likelihood of acrobatics.

This is the level of competence at most of these athletic commissions. Is there any hope to fix anything?

Petr Yan vs. Aljamain Sterling is definitely a main event-worthy fight.

An excellent thread for dog lovers (click through):

Does this qualify as my music of the night or do I still need to link a song?

In another Valentine’s Day post, Alex Volkanovski responded to Cejudo’s callout.

Brian Ortega is getting creative with his strength and conditioning.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

This sequence is straight out of an action movie:

Opinions vary, but I would say calf slicers are the most physically painful (prior to major injury at least) of any lower body submission.

In the clip below, Klein is able to land the head kick in large part because he tossed a cross out first. It wasn’t a great cross, but it was enough to hide the same side kick and score a pretty perfect knockout.

Random Land

An awesome swing:

Midnight Music: This bit of satire made me laugh and did in fact prompt me to listen to QOTSA.

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