Midnight Mania! McGregor looks slow alongside Mayweather, Nick Diaz suspended again

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Conor McGregor released some new training footage today, with the caption “You’ve never seen these moves. #Ghost” (related: meet his sparring partners and see the gallery of McGregor landing on said sparring partners)

Floyd Mayweather, meanwhile, posted his own training footage, with a much longer caption that reminds us how long he’s been doing this.

Now, see them side by side.

Enough seen. Especially if this is right.

Go forth and get crazy in the comments. Give me your wildest takes. This sums up my thoughts on the matter.

Or, an alternative point of view:

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Failing Up

Nick Diaz is an extraordinary character. The man doesn’t enjoy fighting, but he’s invested his whole life into it, and he’s one of the most popular and beloved people in the sport. His fans will go to bat for him years after his last win in the cage; regulators, though, hate him, and he has a long history of failing drug tests for legally prescribed marijuana. Despite the harmless nature of marijuana as a performance enhancing drug (PED), he has gotten ridiculously harsh sentences for failing very dubious tests.

Now, he has been notified of a potential violation again. This time, though, he didn’t even fail a test. Instead, Diaz, whom Dana White would have us believe is ‘never coming back’, failed to provide his whereabouts three times, and thus USADA was unable to test him.

If indeed Dana White is right, one would think Diaz would just retire, officially, and these requirements would stop. The Diaz brothers are, after all, making good money from the marijuana industry, if Nate’s claims and golden joints are to be believed. In reality, White’s claim should be read “I don’t want to pay Nick Diaz enough to get him fighting again”.

All that may be moot for the time being, though. Here is the UFC’s official statement on the matter:

The UFC organization has been notified that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has informed Nick Diaz of a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation stemming from Diaz’s alleged accumulation of three Whereabouts Failures within a 12-month period. Diaz, like all other UFC athletes, is enrolled in USADA’s UFC Registered Testing Pool and required to file accurate Whereabouts information in order to be located for out-of-competition, no-notice testing.

USADA, the independent administrator of the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, will handle the results management and appropriate adjudication of Diaz’s case, who has been provisionally suspended pending the final resolution of this matter. Under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, there is a full and fair legal process that is afforded to all athletes before any sanctions are imposed. Additional information will be provided at the appropriate time as the process moves forward.

Far more than Scott Coker’s argument about UFC uniforms, this whereabouts requirement is something only employees should be required to do- not independent contractors such as UFC fighters.

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Insomnia

Words out of context.

WSOF’s champion Justin Gaethje’s UFC debut comes against Michael Johnson, and the trash talk is already intense.

I amm curious whether Johnson will go toe to toe with Gaethje like he does with Robin van Roosmalen here.

Gaethje, meanwhile, has some ferocious leg kicks- look out for those

Tony Ferguson wants to make Khabib beg for another chance to fight him

I’m not sure even McGregor does as much weird stuff in his training as Tony Ferguson.

Cris Cyborg going after Tony pretty hard here

Apparently the feud began when Ferguson tweeted something about Cyborg using steroids

Keep an eye on this NCAA two-time national wrestling champion. He could make an impact in MMA

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Slips, Rips, and KO Clips

I missed Heather Hardy’s debut, but she looks like a revelation

Great work

This takedown was incredibly slick

What an overhand

This hurts to watch

Old school kneebar

This knee makes my nose tingle and my eyes water just looking at it.

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Good Reads

• Justin Gaethje and the Art of Brawling is worth your time. Patrick Stumberg discusses one of MMA’s most misunderstood terms.
• Bellator 183 looks interesting- some familiar faces are featured

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Podcasts and Video

Listen to Tonya Evinger talk about her path to the UFC ahead of her historic fight with Cris Cyborg

Tommy Toehold reacts to the news of Woodley-Maia

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Stay woke, Maniacs! Follow me on Twitter @Vorpality for a lot of retweeted articles about healthcare. (fun stuff)