Midnight Mania! Kevin Lee: Poirier not a ‘serious competitor’, McGregor rematch would be only to rebuild ‘Notorious’

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Kevin Lee doesn’t think much of Dustin Poirier as a contender in the lightweight division, placing him in an entirely different category than himself. He doesn’t see a problem with Poirier getting a Conor McGregor rematch, except that its an obvious ploy to rebuild the Irishman over a fighter he beat in one round. Never mind that their first fight was in 2014, and Poirier is 8-1-1 since that bout, with wins over Anthony Pettis, Eddie Alvarez and Justin Gaethje. This isn’t the first time Lee has characterized Poirier as merely a brawler, instead of a serious competitor.

Via MMAJunkie.com:

Dustin, to me, is not a serious competitor in this division.

If Conor’s going to take a step backward and fight a man he already knocked out in the first round at 145 (pounds) – if he needs that steps backward to get himself feeling good again so that they can try and make some more money off him, then that’s on him,” Lee said.

“But I put Poirier in another category. He’s in the more ‘fun fight’ category with Nate Diaz and some of these older guys that are just out there to have fun. I’m out here chasing titles.

Lee’s title hopes depend in part on whether he can pull out a win tomorrow night against Al Iaquinta, who defeated him via unanimous decision in his UFC debut, also in 2014. Unfortunately for Lee, even a dominant win would put him somewhere behind contenders like Poirier and Tony Ferguson, who defeated Lee via triangle choke at UFC 216.

Lee is one of the only fighters who has been vocal about his desire to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov since long before Nurmagomedov defeated McGregor to become lightweight champion.

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Insomnia

McGregor is back in training, but not with John Kavanagh. I wonder what the story is there.

Cat Zingano filmed McGregor landing a 540 kick

Jessica Rose-Clark on being ruled medically unfit and having her fight with Andrea Lee cancelled as a result:

This workout seems pretty brutally difficult.

The UFC Anti-Trust lawsuit survived summary judgement... sort of. Everything gets pushed back, and the case rests on whether the judge accepts economist Hal Singer’s model of wage share or the UFC expert Topel’s model of wage levels. Essentially, the UFC’s revenue rose dramatically from 2014 onward- something like 12x over- and that revenue has not been shared with the fighters, even though their pay has risen slightly in dollar amount.

Ilima-Lei Macfarlane giving Valerie Letourneau the Hawaii welcome ahead of tomorrow’s Bellator card.

What a headline

Dominick Cruz has nothing but respect for John Lineker, despite his body letting him down yet again.

I love that Sage Northcutt is chaotic evil in this chart

No one wants Oscar De La Hoya in the sport. The only reason stars in boxing get paid more is because the Ali Act creates a competitive market- he has to pay fighters more because a much freer market dictates it.

If Cain Velasquez does make it to the cage, Francis Ngannou ends him the same way Junior did in their first fight.

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Slips, Rips, KO Clips

Incredible spinning backfist

Always weird to have a ref checking this closely; the speculation is, he was making sure the inside of the glove was not being grabbed

Fantastic combination ending in a high kick

Throwback to when BJ Penn choked out Matt Hughes

More baseball chokes, including the no-gi version

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Podcasts and Video

Kid Nate of Bloody Elbow explains some of what went on beyond the scenes at Bloody Elbow during the events of last week, events I was peripherally involved in responding to. I didn’t realize there was a miscommunication delaying the statement released by BE, and concurrently, my own coverage of the issue.

The top three fights to watch at UFC on Fox 31

MMA Ratings discusses UFC 231, Dana White, and more

The history of the Brazilian death chant, Uh Vai Morrer:

Felix Biederman discusses his documentary, Fighting in the Age of Loneliness, with Luke Thomas.

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Random Land

Nature is stranger than fiction

Sleep well, Maniacs! A better tomorrow is always possible. Follow me on Twitter and Facebook @Vorpality