Midnight Mania! UFC opening Pandora’s box with Mayweather-McGregor talk

Welcome to Midnight Mania! Today we have the implications of that Mayweather-McGregor talk, knockouts from free Fight Pass weekend, more Sumo, some new fighter crushes for you, and much more.

The big news from today was that Dana White countered Mayweather’s offer of $100 million for himself and $15 million for McGregor plus PPV points, with an offer of $25 million for each of them plus PPV points.

To this, of course, Mayweather just laughed and laughed. Oh, and called White a f—ing comedian. You see, he made a guaranteed $32 million to fight Andre Berto- a fight that did less than half a million PPV buys. McGregor-Mayweather would easily top two million buys.

“So... no deal?”

The real story here is that the UFC is drastically underpaying all its fighters, including its stars. Conor getting a guaranteed 3 million for a fight- in a UFC record at the time- that did over 1.5 million buys, is less than 10% of what Mayweather made for a bout that did a quarter of the business. Now that Dana has gone on record offering McGregor a 25 million dollar purse, how is he going to go back to getting 3 million per fight?

Moreover, this whole situation, with the UFC’s president making what he called a “real offer”, opens up the possibility that McGregor may be eligible for protections under the Ali Act. McGregor is a licensed professional boxer in the state of California.

Dana White may have made a serious error. Why would Conor split his potential profits with the company when he can theoretically claim the protection of the Ali act and keep more earnings than he made throughout 2016?

This will be interesting to see play out- not because of the fight itself, which would not be competetive- but because of the legal context it has pulled the UFC into.

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Bobs and Weaves

That’s not a roundhouse kick, but regardless, things escalated quickly.

This is also a nice spinning back kick:

Urijah Faber calls this a push kick here, but he’s got a point about Buchholz, based on Garbrandt’s UFC 207 performance alone.

Lebron is a big fan of Michelle Waterson and her documentary.

What did I say about regional MMA yesterday? That’s right. Never change.

I’m slowly becoming a fan of Sumo.

This was a crazy sequence.

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Female Appreciation Friday

Alright, I see you, Arianny. I’ll make my own eggs though, thanks.

I may have just discovered a new fighter crush. Hello, Rachael Ostovich.

Fight Pass is free this weekend.

I guess while we are on the topic...

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Slips, Rips, and Knockout Clips

Oh, there are a lot of fights streaming on Fight Pass.

I already pay for the service, but if you don’t, definitely worth a look FOR FREE.

Remember the newly retired Cro Cop’s famous saying? Right leg, hospital. Left leg, cemetery.

Oh, this is why that was a saying of his.

Another striking legend? John Wayne Parr. Here he is in action.

How many of your friends have asked you this? I’ve had a couple, and apparently Big John McCarthy has fielded it hundreds of times. He is sick of it.

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Podcasts and Video

Jack Slack’s Fights Gone By:

In case you missed it earlier this week, the Severe MMA podcast:

Masvidal is an interesting man:

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Quick Hits

• Read this to see how a conspiracy of Russian loyalists masqueraded as an MMA promotion in Ukraine
• No Country for Old Penn
• Anderson Silva and Derek Brunson are a bizarre matchup, but they will spice up the UFC 208 card in Brooklyn. As long as he doesn’t repeat the wild charging of the Robert Whitaker bout, I’ve got Brunson.

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Randomland

These sheep decided they were strong independent sheep who didn’t need no shepherd.

Stay woke, Maniacs!