Midnight Mania! Dana White announces Stephen Thompson vs Darren Till in England (not Orlando)

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Dana White was at a talk at the Wild Card boxing gym with Freddie Roach today, and he made a major announcement: Stephen Thompson, fresh off his unanimous decision win over Jorge Masvidal, will be travelling across the pond to fight popular English welterweight Darren Till. Till most recently knocked out Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone at UFC: Gdansk on Fight Pass. Now he gets the opportunity to put himself directly in title contention against another talented striker.

The matchup is stylistic gold. There are interesting similarities between the two; Till fights from southpaw and relies on a sharp left straight, a powerful left kick, and excellent timing on his counters. Against Cerrone, Till showed marked improvements, or at least tactical adjustments, pressuring “Cowboy” into the cage. Without space to operate, Cerrone looked stymied, and fell prey to Till’s sharp one-two and vicious follow-up. That pressure game will be interesting to see against the outfighting Wonderboy, who relies on creating space for his darting karate movements and unorthodox arsenal of kicks.

Thompson nearly edged out Tyron Woodley for the belt, but first drew, then lost by majority decision to the champion. Their second fight, at UFC 209, was such a boring waiting game, each fighter too wary to commit to their offense, that Thompson is effectively frozen out of the title picture as long as Woodley is champion. As such, this fight represents a chance for Thompson to hold position and establish dominance over one of the new generation of welterweights moving into the rankings. For Till, beating Wonderboy would put him near the front of the queue for a title shot, right behind the winner of Robbie Lawler-Rafael Dos Anjos.

Insomnia

Dana White is also apparently serious about getting into boxing.

Great counter-roast by the Predator, Francis Ngannou, over Alastair Overeem.

Sage really wants this role.

Rory Macdonald embracing his killer instinct is a beautiful thing ...

I’m just leaving this here

Combat sports events this next weekend.

Slips, Rips, and KO Clips

That, my friends, is called a haymaker.

So is this!

A reminder that GSP landed a wheel kick this weekend.

In case you want to relive the finishes one more time:

This is also an all-time great fighting moment we cannot ever let ourselves forget:

Quick Hits

• Odds have been released for GSP-Whittaker and TJ-DJ, and I disagree with the oddsmakers on both these fights.
• The fighter who died in the cage last weekend is feeling much better.
• Chael Sonnen explains what he thinks went wrong with Johny Hendricks.

Podcasts and Video

The MMA Outsiders is back, this time featuring the great Jon Fitch, who tells us all about the UFC lawsuit and explains how he got so good at ukelele. He comes on just before the 36-minute mark; when the recording starts, he is talking about his fight with Demian Maia. Check us out on SoundCloud as well as iTunes and Stitcher on the official MMA Mania channel!

Beer fanatic Flyin’ Brian J. talks beer pairing for next weekend’s UFC fights. Follow MMA Mania on Youtube.

Random Land

Magic

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