Midnight Mania! GSP Advises Ngannou: Go Get Paid!

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Few managed their professional MMA careers better than Georges St. Pierre. Of course, being an all-time great talent helps, but even so, “GSP” managed to capture a pair of titles, make lots of money, and leave on his own terms. There was occasional friction with UFC, but on the whole, St. Pierre played the game well and reaped the benefits.

One of the larger conflicts between athlete and promotion at the moment revolves around Francis Ngannou, specifically his desire for larger paychecks and more freedom to compete in the boxing ring. While on The MMA Hour, St. Pierre gave some advice to Ngannou from a position.

The gist? Go get paid!

“I’m telling him as a friend that he needs to get paid to his value,” St-Pierre said (via MMAJunkie). “And if he’s not satisfied with what the UFC gives him, then go seek, go get your service somewhere else where they’re going to pay you well because he’s not young and he’s coming to that point.”

Ngannou’s position is unique. In an attempt to gain his freedom, he’s suffered financially and taken a major risk to fight out his current UFC contract. Typically, his position as champion — a big part of what makes him so valuable to the promotion and sports world as a whole — would lock him down, but he may be able to parlay that recognition into a huge offer … If he doesn’t get sued in the process.

“He’s a heavyweight and you never know what can happen,” St-Pierre continued. “One punch can change the fight. It’s very rare to see a heavyweight stay champion for a long time because of that reason. So he needs to get paid. He needs to go somewhere where he’s going to be paid what he’s worth. If the UFC is not ready to do that, now he has the power on the side and he can negotiate because of his contract. I believe he’s in a very good position right now.”

Ngannou is currently recovering from a recent knee surgery, and another interim title seems likely. Ultimately, it remains to be seen how negotiations shake out later in the year.

Stay tuned.

Insomnia

Curtis Blaydes requests fans to stop telling him that he has CTE, which seems reasonable.

For my US/western readers, One Championship may be coming to a more easily accessible tv near you.

I enjoyed this exchange between polite Welterweight Karatekas — finding content today that was not Will Smith-related was actually fairly difficult!

Cub Swanson is getting … experimental … with his strength training.

12 more days of championship level Bantamweight Twitter trash talk.

Different sport than the clip below, but Matt Brown’s foot sweeps at UFC Columbus were perfection.

I would prefer to never read nor write another word about Kamaru Usman vs. Canelo Alvarez.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Once the hip blocks the armpit to create the arm-across guillotine/seated arm triangle position, the choked fighter is pretty stuck.

The two rights hands, the left hook, the man hitting the floor — several unpleasant thuds in this one.

Straight up not having a good time!

Random Land

A sweet skateboard trick:

Midnight Music: Gangsta rap, 2003

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