Midnight Mania! Watch Dana White meet Conor McGregor for first time

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

The first time Conor McGregor met Dana White, it was love at first sight. McGregor had just finished knocking out Marcus Brimage, and you can almost see the dollar signs in Dana’s eyes. McGregor came into the UFC with a lot of promise, a two-division regional champion in Cage Warriors, having won the featherweight and lightweight belts in quick succession- and never defending either. Sound familiar?

Dana immediately offers him fights in Boston and Ireland. You can also see Analyst McGregor appear in this clip, describing how he knew Brimage was emotional and felt he would overreach- an eerie foreshadowing of the fight that made his career, the 13-second knockout of Jose Aldo.

McGregor would go on to defeat tougher and tougher opponents at featherweight (sans Dennis Siver), culminating in his astonishing win over Aldo to claim featherweight gold. Two fights against Nate Diaz and a historic second belt at lightweight against Eddie Alvarez, and it’s tough to remember a time before Conor McGregor put an entire sport in his shadow. Yet, when Dana first met Conor, he was still on the dole, living on government support to fund his regional MMA career. That first $60,000 “Knockout of the Night” bonus changed his life. “60 G’s baby!”

His next bout, in fact, was against a young Max Holloway, and McGregor made all of $24,000 dollars for that decision win. That was the last loss on Max Holloway’s record, and Max went on to win eleven straight fights, the most recent a devastating win over Jose Aldo to claim the featherweight belt Conor McGregor left behind.

Now, the irascible Irishman finds himself set to make $100 million or more from this fight with Floyd Mayweather. That kind of career requires a step back to appreciate fully.

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Insomnia

The infamous movement coach, Ido Portal.

Was this the last time McGregor competed in anther combat sport?

Did you know Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen are going to fight this weekend? I had forgotten completely, which says a lot about how poorly this pay-per-view has been promoted by Bellator.

What Wanderlei used to be able to do

Fedor is fighting Mitrione this weekend, too. How did RIZIN get Ric Flair’s belt?

I’m a big fan of Lorenz Larkin

Oh yeah this is hilarious.

It may not be a widely anticipated fight, but I’m looking forward to seeing Shevchenko-Nunes 2 at UFC 213. Having watched Shevchenko kickbox in person, I find it incredible she was able to make the transition to mixed martial arts and climb to the top so quickly.

Yeah that looks like it’s gonna be sore for awhile.

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Slips, Rips, KO Clips

I hope you are okay with watching some boxing tonight

I wanted McGregor to pull something like this against Mayweather but it seems boxing officials are much quicker to penalize fouls than MMA referees.

This was awesome

Body shots

This got weirdly serious

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Good Reads

• This lingerie football brawl appears to be right up your alley, Maniacs.
• Matt Mitrione speaks a lot of sense, saying Tim Hague’s death is a wake up call for fighter unions, better pay and life insurance. A fighter who fought as long as Hague should not have needed to take to the boxing ring to make money. “It sucks man. And I heard about a post he made on Facebook where he said he just wanted to get some money so he can have a great Father’s Day with his kid”
• Why, exactly is Artem Lobov in Conor’s corner for the Mayweather bout? You know what, never mind. It won’t make a difference anyway.
• Chuck Mindenhall gives five reasons why it’s impossible to discount that tiny, tiny chance that McGregor has of taking away Mayweather’s pristine undefeated record. Yeah, none of those will make a difference either. But I bet by the time the fight rolls around a small part of me will believe they could.

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Podcasts and Video

GGG talks Mayweather-McGregor and gets suckered into saying he supports Real Madrid

Andrew Richardson breaks down Chiesa’s back attacks

Flyin Brian J predicts UFC Fight Night 112

And here is his Beer Pairing for the night:

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Stay woke, Maniacs! Follow me on Twitter @Vorpality