Midnight Mania: Return Of The Irish Dragon?

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Paul Felder might just have the itch to step back inside the Octagon.

The 39-year-old talent walked away from the sport in November 2020 following consecutive losses, a highly competitive war with Dan Hooker followed by an extremely short-notice and gutsy showing against Rafael dos Anjos. Since then, he’s transitioned more into his role on the production team, working as a color commentator. However, he may now be reconsidering his decision, inspired by Chan Sung Jung’s final blaze of glory in front of an adoring crowd.

A few days later, Felder revealed that he’s back in the USADA testing pool! He’s still not confirming a comeback, only giving himself the option of returning six months from now against some other “old” Lightweight.

“I have no idea,” Felder said of his MMA future (via MMAJunkie). “I rolled with Michael (Chiesa) today. Honest to God, it blew up on social. I’m back training. I’m enjoying MMA again.

“For all the people that think I need a complete both hip replacements, I have bad hips, there’s no secret about that. I’ve had bad hips for years, but I am back in the USADA testing pool. That’s exactly where I’m at now, but that is it. That is it. I did it just in case. I’m getting old and there might be some old dudes out there that might want to dust it up in six months. Other than that, I have no idea. I’m enjoying training.”

Felder’s hips are definitely a concerning issue. Just a couple weeks ago, Felder posted an unfortunate update on Instagram, explaining that bone-on-bone grinding what severely affecting his mobility and ability to race in triathlons. There’s not really a non-surgical fix to that type of grating injury, so Felder faces the decision of returning compromised or going back under the knife.

Would you like to see “The Irish Dragon” back in the cage?

Insomnia

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Randomly wrestling your buddies and shadowboxing in the kitchen are really the top perks of being an MMA fighter.

Shoutout to Russian press conferences for an endless supply of content.

Imagine being this slick.

This post-UFC 292 comic gave me a good chuckle at Ian Garry’s expense.

A fun technique breakdown! People got annoyed by the endless nature of the Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Brandon Moreno quadrilogy, but they were all great fights!

Slips, rips, and KO clips

The idea that Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira was younger then than Israel Adesanya is now … PRIDE years count aged fighters at least three times more than average. Also, what a fight!

One’s Friday Fights consistently provide the nastiest finishes.

Machismo pays off every once in a while.

Random Land

A massive reptilian housemate.

Midnight Music: Dream pop, 1992

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