Midnight Mania! Former UFC fighter Jason William Day chokes out Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson on movie set

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Superstar Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson has been on the edge of the MMA bubble for a long time. He is widely known for supporting Ronda Rousey in her UFC career, acting alongside her in the Fast and Furious franchise and her Wrestlemania appearance. He even said he once considered a career in MMA a la Brock Lesnar (or CM Punk). On a movie set recently, he filmed a scene where a former UFC fighter, Jason William Day, put him in a rear naked choke that got pretty real. Johnson described the experience on his Instagram account:

Night night. The glaze you see over my eyes as Im about to pass out is real. As is how deep this rear naked choke is sunk in by @UFC veteran turned actor/stuntman @jasonwilliamday

In our action thriller #SkyscraperMovie I barely survive everything that’s thrown my way. Including this fight. First take when Jason slapped this rear naked on me, I knew right away, holy shit, this brother is sinking it in. I thought fuck it, the more real the better, it’ll be great for the movie. After every take Jason would always ask if everything was ok with the choke. I said everything was great. Our director, Rawson Thurber called me and Jason over to the monitor to watch playback of the scene. Rawson and Jason were happy and felt we got it, but I said, let’s take one more crack at this. Before I walked away I whispered to Rawson, I’m gonna let him hold the choke longer, just keep shooting. After the take was done and I got my senses back and SLOWLY got up, me and Jason hugged like grateful gentlemen. He’s a real class act and bad ass. A pleasure getting my hands dirty with a real fighter. #BarelySurviving #SkyscraperMovie

That’s the famous dedication that has seen Dwayne Johnson navigate an extraordinarily successful career, from pro wrestler to polished actor.

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Insomnia

This is amazing: “El Cucuy” scares Dana White (again)

You might be interested in UFC 217’s main event, but this is what I can’t wait for: TJ Dillashaw vs. Cody Garbrandt.

Garbrandt reveals the gender of his expected child:

I’m also extremely into this one:

Some ranked bantamweights talking trash: Thomas Almeida called out 135’s missing man, Bryan Caraway, and Caraway responded.

After Kevin Lee’s near-miss this morning, Aljamain Sterling dropped some knowledge about how much weight fighters cut, on average. Rule of thumb: think two weight classes up. That’s accurate even for higher weight classes: Welterweights often walk around at ~200 pounds, middleweights often begin their cut from 225. Forget the concussions. This is what will kill a fighter someday unless it changes; and the early weigh-ins have made everything worse.

Kevin Lee’s response after he did eventually make weight:

Poirier with the controlled burn

Anthony Johnson would fit right in at heavyweight. I would love to see him fight someone like Alastair Overeem.

Woodley is accurate with this comparison

I know someone named Luke Schuyler Walker so this seems about right

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Quick Hits

• Bellator 184 results, replete with .GIFs and interviews. (If you like Midnight Mania, you’ll love this)
• Ferguson says his style is “f***ing genius, which I have to agree with. He’s brilliant in the cage lately
• UFC 216 weigh-in video results

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Slips, Rips, and KO Clips

Darrion Caldwell is the real deal

He literally bounced his head off his canvas. Eat your heart out, Conor McGregor

The folding chair knockout

Another angle:

Great fight

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Podcasts and Video

Kevin Lee vs. Tony Ferguson full fight preview By The Numbers:

Andrew Richardson explains Ray Borg’s half-guard attacks. Subscribe to MMAMania’s Youtube channel for more

Cormier apologizes to Anthony Johnson for his crybaby comments.

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Random Land

Watch a man light himself on fire. He does a pretty convincing three-second impression of the Human Torch. I wonder if he was on fire long enough to get burned.

Stay woke, Maniacs! Follow me on Twitter and Facebook @Vorpality