Welcome to Midnight Mania!
After weeks and weeks of failed plans, UFC 249 finally seems to be happening. UFC and Dana White are so confident that the event will run without a hitch — no calls from the governor in Florida! — that they have already booked two more events in the seven days following UFC 249.
At this point, it appears safe to say, UFC can and will hold shows in early May. However, the question remains regarding whether they can do so without putting fighters, corners, UFC staff, and medical workers at risk?
White spoke to TMZ earlier today to alleviate such concerns and hype up the mega-event. “We’re gonna have an overabundance of safety,” White explained. “We’re always safe. When you look at regular businesses, regular businesses now have to worry about health and safety in a way that they’ve never had to before. That’s what we do every week for the last 20 years.”
“This is nothing new for us ... We’re gonna spend what it costs. We have really smart people who’ve been working on this and we’re gonna spend whatever it costs to make sure the fighters, their camps, the commission, the referees, our production people and everybody is safe that’s gonna go to this event.”
White avoided specifics, but he was adamant that “We’re going to do everything and then we’re gonna go even another level above that.”
Insomnia
Irene Aldana has hands! And, it would seem, elbows as well!
— Irene Aldana (@IreneAldana_) April 24, 2020
Ovince Saint Preux vs. Ben Rothwell is a wonderfully bad mix of power punches, weird chokes, and tired lads.
Ion Cutelaba can’t re-enter the country, I’m told, so one fight that they are looking to add to that new May 13 card is OSP vs Rothwell at heavyweight.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) April 24, 2020
Tyron Woodley vs. New Zealand continues!
I genuinely apologise for offending you, I had no idea you were serious. I honestly thought you knew your rap career was a joke. https://t.co/WOVXYrSJNk
— Dan Hangman Hooker (@danthehangman) April 24, 2020
*laughs in black https://t.co/BR7Pxx5n9C
— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) April 23, 2020
... also on that note, this is hard to watch.
This is exactly what I imagine hell is like. pic.twitter.com/VoQbu8yUps
— Deepak Chocha (@mmamy1200) April 9, 2020
Tag team MMA is probably the last thing we need right now, but it’s a ton of fun to watch!
More footwork — this time with head movement — from Dominick Cruz ahead of his Henry Cejudo title fight:
Slips, rips, and KO clips
A great example on why Muay Thai teaches kicks to lead with the knee first!
"Black Mamba" Kultar Gill knocks out Hideo Tokoro pic.twitter.com/2w49CZzPLr
— MEGATON (trashykksliderfan) (@BasedDongeezus) April 24, 2020
Straight armbars are very low risk in terms of losing a dominant position, and they can definitely break the arm. Underutilized!
Darren Till can laugh at himself:
Random Land
Is this interesting to anyone besides myself? No? Oh well.
Midnight Music: I listened to a lot of Talking Heads today, which is not abnormal for me.
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.
MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 249 fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the ESPN+/Fight Pass “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. ET, then the remaining undercard balance on ESPN+/ESPN at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
To check out the latest and greatest UFC 249: “Ferguson vs. Gaethje” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.
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