Midnight Mania! ‘GSP’ Vs. De La Hoya ‘Too Risky’ For MMA Community

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Safe to say, MMA fighters are not exactly thriving in these random boxing crossovers. Of course, a great deal of that has to do with where these matches take place. With the notable exception of James Toney vs. Randy Couture circa 2010, it’s largely been MMA fighters stepping into the ring rather than the opposite. That’s where the money is, even if the losses are piling up for the MMA community.

The latest such match up to materialize is the hypothetical Georges St. Pierre vs. Oscar De La Hoya. At 48 years of age, De La Hoya is further removed from his best days than “GSP,” who won a world title in November 2017. Regardless of the age discrepancy, the Canadian legend would be a massive underdog, which is perhaps why UFC President Dana White shut down the whole thing.

Former UFC double champ Daniel Cormier offered his thoughts on the match up, labeling the bout “too risky” for MMA.

“I gotta be honest, I don’t know,” Cormier said on DC & Helwani (via BJPenn.com). “I think it’s too risky for us as a community to have a guy like Georges St-Pierre boxing Oscar De La Hoya. Great for ‘GSP’ in terms of the money he will make but too risky. Because even at—I don’t know if Oscar’s gotta be mid-50s at this point—it’s too risky for ‘GSP’ to go and fight him because if he gets beat, if he gets starched, it’s a bad look when the greatest fighter of all time is out there getting beat or knocked out or just dominated by a 55-year old boxer.

“You can not possibly believe Georges St-Pierre beats Oscar De La Hoya in a boxing match. Like, reality. Does not matter, dude’s an Olympic champ boxer. No, man. That’s why I don’t want to see it. It’s too risky. Maybe GSP does win but I don’t believe he does so whatever. Might as well not even do it.”

It remains to be seen if De La Hoya can find an MMA fighter outside of UFC’s contract with a big enough name for his return bout.

Insomnia

Jan Blachowicz has a Rocky moment.

Don’t go raging about politics in the comment section (spoiler: at least one person will anyway), but One Championship’s new Heavyweight kingpin Arjan Bhullar getting a shoutout from Justin Trudeau is pretty neat.

Ryan Hall vs. Ilia Topuria is something of a step up for both men, and it’s definitely going to be a quality fight!

Conor McGregor is a top-tier opportunist.

I don’t know who made this, but I love it.

Arman Tsarukyan calls out Grant Dawson for a clash of Lightweight grapplers/prospects:

Some interesting stats regarding UFC fighters who compete after bouts with COVID-19 (note that this Tweet was pre-UFC Vegas 27).

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Paul Felder climbed higher than anyone would’ve really expected, and he did so via grit and spinning sh*t.

This man never truly recovered after the elbow.

Laguna gets some solid height on this jump knee!

Random Land

No fewer than half-a-dozen people sent this to me, so I guess I oughta post it!

Midnight Music: Pink Flag by Wire is a punk/post-punk mega classic. It’s worth the full listen!

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