Midnight Mania! Chandler Retreats To Nashville Amidst McGregor Rumors

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Michael Chandler may have information the rest of us do not.

It’s been a difficult 48 hours for “Iron” Mike, who may be watching his dream match up versus Conor McGregor go up in flames. Scheduled for the main event of UFC 303, McGregor suddenly canceled on pre-fight press obligations due to “obstacles outside of our control” — whatever that means! Now, there’s rumors swirling about injury and reports that UFC is looking into alternate main event options.

That’s BAD NEWS for Chandler, who has spent a ton of time waiting and building towards the McGregor match up. It’s an understandable goal for Chandler, seeing as McGregor is a considerably more massive star than anyone else on the UFC roster, as victory could dramatically change his life. As a result of chasing the McGregor fight, however, Chandler hasn’t fought in 19 months.

At 38 years of age, that’s a major risk. McGregor reacted to all the chaos in the Instagram post above, remaining cryptic with his caption. Tagging the location as Nashville, Tennessee, Chandler posted some training shots and accompanied them with the caption, “If you’re looking for me, I’ll be out in Tennessee. No way out of the life we chose…” There’s nothing definitive there, but it would be a little weird if Chandler were to leave his fight camp in Florida if all was well.

The follow up “Walk On” and “See you at the top!” are standard Chandler phrases, but this is downright unenthusiastic posting considering the source. Chandler’s love for and reliance on inspirational quotes is well-known to the point of annoyance, but this is his most quiet post in recent memory.

Perhaps that’s indicative of bad news? Quite a few responses online are arguing that Chandler has reached the “acceptance” stage in the five stages of grief. We’ll find out sooner than later if that’s true, or if Chandler is merely keeping his cards close to his chest.

Insomnia

I rate this action more highly than most of the official UFC 302 fights.

Silly edit of the week:

I cannot decide if “Canadian dude with a Sean Strickland tattoo” is the punchline or setup to a joke.

Alexander Volkanovksi, Kevin Holland, Kayla Harrison — lots of fighters are interested in stepping up to save UFC 303.

Just the most Middleweight of Middleweight match ups.

Merab Dvalishvili has really outdone himself with this one.

Luke Rockhold is really training hard for the Craig Jones Invitational.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

This is one of the all-time great knockout wins, and it’s like the fourth one of such a high calibre on Dan Henderson’s resume.

Fighting Alexander Schlemenko in his own promotion is a bold move.

Showed the knee a couple times before snapping the kick upstairs!

Random Land

Some folks can’t let go of winter.

Midnight Music: Rock, 2017

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