Midnight Mania! ‘Absolutely do not go into MMA’

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Gordon Ryan is a controversial figure in the grappling world, but his greatness on the mats cannot be questioned. Ryan has simply dominated the no-gi competition scene in the last four years, winning four gold medals at Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC), as well as numerous super fights against names like Andre Galvao and Nick Rodriguez (HIGHLIGHTS).

Last year, Ryan signed a contract to compete for One Championship in their grappling division. Though his agreement with the promotion has since been dissolved, Ryan’s contract also included wording about a potential crossover into MMA, an idea he’s toyed around with for years.

Seeing as he’s largely cleared the field in the no-gi world, perhaps now is the time for a move? While speaking on The MMA Hour, Ryan explained why he was advised against stepping into the cage by his legendary coach John Danaher.

“I don’t know,” Ryan said (via MMAFighting). “John [Danaher] has never been wrong, our coach, has never been wrong about anything. He’s never been wrong. He’s told me things and whether it be five years or three years or seven years later, he always ends up being right, and John is like, ‘Absolutely do not go into MMA. You already make a ton of money doing this, you’re considered the greatest of all time already, and jiu-jitsu is about to become main stream, and once it becomes main stream everyone is going to get paid more and jiu-jitsu is going to be a real sport. You’re the forefront of that and if you move to MMA now, that could be lost.’ So I don’t know. Maybe if one of the other guys from the team wins an ADCC Absolute or something.

“I’ve always wanted to fight MMA, but I’m in such a good position now and I feel like it’s kind of my job to push jiu-jitsu over the hump into mainstream. So I’m not totally ruling it out but I’m pretty comfortable with just grappling right now.”

Likely, it would take something major to pull Ryan into the cage. As it stands, “King” is at the top of the game, earning more than the vast majority of professional fighters from his prize winnings and especially his instructional videos. Unless something changes, expect Ryan to remain on his home turf.

Insomnia

Shavkat Rakhmonov is aware of the “Where does Kevin Lee fit into this” meme. Astounding!

An update on the Gervonta Davis situation:

Zabit may or may not be coming back, but he still looks in great shape.

It may be a little while until we see Muhammad Mokaev back inside the Octagon.

Did any of our readers call any of these upsets? Alternatively, hit the comments with your biggest underdog/parlay win of 2022.

“The Leech” Li Jingliang goes through fire fighter training!

BRING THE FUNK!

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Matt Frevola beat the crap out of someone in a sketchy Muay Thai fight.

The teenagers are taking over!

Double jab-overhand is probably the most classic MMA combination, and it claims another victim here.

Random Land

I’ve done quite a few things that many people find scary/stupid, but you will not catch me doing this s—t.

Midnight Music: Hip-hop, 2022

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