Midnight Mania! Burns: ‘Rapper’ Woodley Ducking Me

Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

UFC 249 is finally booked and settled away, but what’s to become of the “postponed” UFC London event and its respective main event fighters?

Leon Edwards’ future is seemingly guaranteed: no fights for “Rocky,” who is stuck in England on the sidelines. Edwards may want former matched foe Tyron Woodley to wait around for him, but it just doesn’t seem likely, as Woodley is already beefing with Colby Covington.

However, that fight has been talked about and failed to materialize several times over now. There’s another option in Gilbert Burns, the former Lightweight who’s on a real tear at 170 lbs. “Durinho” was last seen knocking out Demian Maia at UFC Brasilia, the final event to take place before the current shutdown.

That win shot him up the ranks to No.6.

Unfortunately, Woodley doesn’t seem impressed. Burns has called out Woodley several times now to no public response, leading to Burns accusing “T-Wood” of ducking him … and taking a shot at Woodley’s rap career in the process.

While it still seems Woodley vs. Covington is the match to book for an upcoming main event if possible, this is really an excellent option if that bout continues to remain stuck in negotiation hell.

Insomnia

Full UFC 249 card in all its glory!

It sounds like Khalil Rountree Jr. will not be facing Sam Alvey — “Smile’n” has a new opponent in Ryan Spann per the Tweet above — which bums me out.

Valentina Shevchenko with a dizzying new challenge:

Someday, kick counters like the one below will become more prevalent in MMA.

Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje is obviously a great fight with potential to be legendary, but it’s hard not to feel sad about what was sacrificed, as well as the continual screwing-over of “El Cucuy.”

Frank Mir’s daughter is strong as hell! Keep an eye out for Bella Mir someday in the future.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Let’s begin with a historic boxing match that more than earned its legend:

Momentum can shift quickly!

Brilliant Fedor moment of the clip: watch as the greatest Heavyweight of all time uses a hard knee to the mid-section to immediately set up a knee pick takedown at about the 0:55 second mark.

Random Land

I like the chair kick from the back of a bike.

Midnight Music: For anyone who hasn’t heard Slint’s post-rock masterpiece Spiderland, the general themes of isolation and anxiety are a solid fit for today’s climate.

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