Midnight Mania! Dillon Danis withdraws from ADCC, sparking trash talk from Ben Askren and Gordon Ryan

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Dillon Danis is a controversial troll who says lots of annoying things just to rile people up. He’s also a pretty great grappler and jiu-jitsu coach to Conor McGregor, as well as undefeated professional fighter. Danis was set to compete in the -99kg division of the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) grappling competition, which is pretty much the Olympics of no-gi jiu-jitsu and only occurs every two years.

Naturally, Ben Askren — whom Danis has feuded with and may grapple in the near future — saw this as an opportunity to take a shot at the black belt.

Danis answered back, making fun of Askren’s recent knockout loss (really creative).

That’s all well and good, but likely the most dominant name in jiu-jitsu right now, Gordon Ryan, also had words for Danis. Danis was supposed to compete in Ryan’s division, and once again, the two have a history of trash talk. This is where it gets juicy though: Ryan alleges that Danis dipped from ADCC as a result of a break up with his girlfriend.

Ryan was less than sympathetic.

Yikes. As of writing, Danis has yet to respond to Ryan, but he has taken to Twitter to continue calling for a fight with YouTube celeb Jake Paul, which is just... gross.

Insomnia

Did you wake up this morning wondering if Diego Sanchez is still weird? Don’t worry, he is.

Immediately following Sanchez’s flies was a Jake Shields throwback that also featured “The Nightmare,” so let’s include that as well!

Check out the full thread for some interesting insights into the MMA world, most of which were news to me!

“El Cucuy” is keeping his name out there in classically strange fashion.

This reads like a Seinfeld routine.

Michelle Waterson looks absolutely shredded ahead of her main event vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Some great transitions to finally secure the TAP!

I live for Justin Gaethje throwbacks:

Once again, I’m impressed with the total weight commitment in Muay Thai — he absolutely threw himself into the first knee.

Random Land

Please know that I say this with 100% sincerity: I will be cheering for the robots when they take us all out.

How many attempts did this take?

Midnight Music: All of St. Vincent’s albums are pretty great, but her Grammy-winning self-titled 2015 album is my favorite. It’s the perfect mix of weird and catchy, and perhaps the most rock-oriented of her work.

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.