Midnight Mania! Charles Oliveira will be cage side for Conor McGregor vs Dustin Poirier 3

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

The UFC Lightweight title picture has certainly been shaken up by the Dustin Poirier vs. Conor McGregor trilogy. After all, Poirier chose to chase the much, much larger paycheck of a McGregor fight rather than pursue the undisputed title. As a result, “The Diamond” is headlining UFC 264, while the Lightweight title already found a new home around the waist of Charles Oliveira, who pummeled Michael Chandler in one of the year’s best fights (HIGHLIGHTS).

At a certain point, those dividing paths among the Lightweight elites must realign. MMAFighting’s Guilherme Cruz reported that Oliveira will be in attendance at UFC 264, cage side for the pivotal Lightweight clash.

There really wasn’t a ton of doubt around the situation, but this largely confirms that Poirier vs. McGregor 3 is a title eliminator match up. Poirier is ranked as the top Lightweight contender and highly on the pound-for-pound chart, while McGregor is a former champion and the biggest draw in the sport — it’s not exactly rocket science to have the victor square off with “Do Bronx.”

Regardless of who’s victorious at UFC 264, Oliveira promises to knock him out.

LIVE! Watch UFC 293 PPV On ESPN+ Here!

MASSIVE MIDDLEWEIGHT MATCH! Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) makes its highly anticipated return to Sydney, Australia, for the first time in five years on Sat., Sept. 9, 2023, with a 185-pound world title fight inside Qudos Bank Arena. In the ESPN+-streamed pay-per-view (PPV) main event, Middleweight roost-ruler, Israel Adesanya, plans to silence No. 5-seeded contender, Sean Strickland. In UFC 293’s hard-hitting Heavyweight co-main event, No-6-ranked fan favorite, Tai Tuivasa, locks horns with towering Russian, Alexander Volkov (No. 8).

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Insomnia

McGregor fight week means lots of Conor content and stats. Safe to say, punching power is never in doubt with the Irishman!

One of kickboxing’s finest works the heavy bag:

Click through if you’d like a (sad) laugh:

Here’s something of a mind trip: Mark Coleman’s daughters, who famously were in the ring with him post-Fedor brutalization, are adults and going to be fighting MMA soon.

The gnarliest warmup exercise in wrestling/MMA:

I’m enjoying Khabib Nurmagomedov’s journey into the world of coaching, but this video also illustrates another lesson that I’ve found to be universal in MMA gyms: good pushups are for S&C, while anything goes on the mats!

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Ronda Rousey’s boxing quickly became a meme following her knockout losses, but she could still hurt ladies with the right hand!

Maybe one of the most aggressive sequences ever posted in this column:

Live by the sword ...

Random Land

What in the Russia is going on here?

Midnight Music: “Would you say we’d be venturing into a zone of danger?”

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