Welcome to Midnight Mania, where we forget about sleep and instead load up on all the mixed martial arts (MMA) minutiae possible.

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Conor McGregor

Let’s just get the mandatory Conor McGregor content out of the way right off the bat. The man generates a day’s worth of news and buzz all by himself ... almost without having to do anything. Here he is, brooding.

In case you missed it, here is Dana White claiming that the double champ gave up his Featherweight title willingly. Meanwhile, McGregor disagrees, saying that White and Co. are “fooling nobody.”

In somewhat related news, McGregor is an 11:1 underdog when it comes to a “super fight” against retired boxing champion Floyd Mayweather. This detailed analysis examines whether he really has a shot against the pound-for-pound boxing great.

Ugly Christmas sweater McGregor, though, is where it’s at. I’m pretty sure my girl would roll her eyes so hard they would get stuck in the back of her head.

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Okay, now that we got that out of the way, onto the important news: Grabaka Hitman is back! In case you don’t know him, “Caposa” is one of the most integral players in the MMA Twitterverse. He may, in fact, be the essence of MMA Twitter. His account was suspended yesterday because UFC, apparently, does not want us to see Rin Nakai's epic front kick:

UFC’s social media and online policies have been crap since the beginning of time — the world’s leading MMA promotion is just flat-out dumb in that department. Nonetheless, Grabaka_Hitman returned to Twitter under a different account today:

While he was gone:

He wasted no time getting back into packaging awesome content:

In honor of his return, here are some un-related clips of violence. Remind me never to get into a fight in Russia. You just don’t know who has been doing combat Sambo. Their sprawl game, too strong:

Here’s a Muay Thai knockout ... no context needed:

Looks like that account is worth following... Speaking of accounts worth following, this one definitely is. Check this win by stomps:

This event was apparently awesome:

There were a LOT more .gifs — check out Megaton’s feed to see them all. Brandon “The Truth” Vera won his fight in ONE Fighting Championship:

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WTF

Today was a collection of “what the fuck” moments for me on Twitter. For anyone who thinks fighters are just fine making what they are making — or who don’t understand the need for a fighter’s association ... or don’t have a problem with fighters getting crap pay for a career that takes a brutal toll — read the following. If this doesn’t break your damn heart, I’m not sure what would convince you.

First off is UFC’s first-ever women’s Strawweight champion Carla Esparza needing to sell her bike to make ends meet:

It makes an athlete really question choosing a career as a fighter:

Although, the culture around fight sports isn’t always exactly ... sane.

As if that wasn’t sad enough, Patrick Cummins made it worse. First, he posted this gross video of the disgusting staph infection that caused him to pull out of his scheduled fight in Albany:

... and then responded to Carla Esparza with this shocker:

Yeah, that’s right. Patrick Cummins, professional UFC fighter, ranked Light Heavyweight, UFC’s barista-turned fighter inspirational story? He’s broke and allegedly homeless.

Oh, and here are several other reminders of the tolls this sport takes. Look at Gray Maynard, fighting tomorrow:

He looks like he just emerged from the wilderness after surviving “Naked and Afraid”.

OH! And you know how Benson Henderson hasn’t looked quite the same since moving to Bellator? He’s been fighting on a TORN ACL!!! WTF “Bendo,” you tough-ass weirdo.

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Hot Sauce

UFC 206’s extended video preview is up. And I don’t care what anyone says, that main event is fire.

Oh, and an obligatory reminder that the best MMA fighter in the world is fighting tomorrow. Check out this feature on Demetrious Johnson.

SuperCalo is another of my favorite Twitter follows. He is consistently funny:

The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) has been around for 24 iterations. This is a great feature on the series by Dr. Patrick Wyman.

Meanwhile, media day mean mugs!

The weigh ins, though, saw the Hulk show up (again), so, there’s that:

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Don’t forget Bellator 166 went down tonight. You can access the live feed and story stream here.

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Bobs And Weaves:

CroCop is angry. Yeah ... don’t make CroCop angry.

So, one of my favorite people on Twitter is game developer Jon Jones. Because of his name, he gets a LOT of messages from people. Fortunately, he has a sense of humor. He also happens to have become friends with fellow MMA Twitter-name doppelganger Daniel Cormier, because people kept tagging them together. They share an interest in video games and a love for cats. Just search the hashtag #wrongjonjones to see some of his stories.

What makes an iron chin, anyway? Ten points if you guess correctly. Hint: It has nothing to do with your actual chin.

MMA is going to Congress! The Ali Expansion Act is beginning to go through the legislative process. Perhaps that’s another route for fighter’s lives to get better. Let us hope so.

Gegard Mousasi is in the history books today, apropos of nothing:

Cody Garbrandt is player of the year, if you look closely at this translated article with the appropriate accompanying picture:

Yeah, I don’t think he’s missing Paige VanZant. He did well for himself. Very well.

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Quick Hits

• The Korean Zombie is returning to face all-action fighter Dennis Bermudez in Houston. First of all, I live in Houston. You can bet your bottom dollar I’m getting tickets to that one. Second of all, neither of them have ever been in a boring fight. I cannot wait.
• This! Jon Jones had an anxiety attack after failing his drug test before UFC 200.
• And this! Roy Nelson finally apologized for kicking John McCarthy in Brazil. About time.

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Completely Unrelated To MMA (But Still Cool)

Reindeer hit by lightning in Norway is a kinda disturbing thing to watch.

I came across this gem on SuperCalo’s 16. Yeah, it was indestructible.

Stay woke, Maniacs.

Shoot me an email over at VorpalManiac@gmail.com with any feedback or sweet memes. Seriously ... I’m getting lonely over there.