Welcome to Midnight Mania!
UFC 281 sure felt like a huge deal ahead of time, and it lived up to the hype. Two title fights, an all-action war, lots of finishes from start-to-finish — the night delivered! Both titles changed hands, as Alex Pereira and Zhang Weili were crowned after violent finishes.
Of course, fun fights don’t always equate to major sales. The newly dethroned Israel Adesanya, however, believes that in this case, UFC 281 moved serious numbers. “Stylebender” is optimistic and has his target on seven figures, a mark that hasn’t been hit since the trilogy between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor at UFC 264 in July 2021.
“I think this could be over a million, knock on wood,” he told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “I feel, just cause people either want to see you win or lose. And I feel like this is the one where they were like, ‘Oh, he might lose.’ Yeah, I’m hoping over a million. I don’t even need a million buys, but still, just for my own ego I want to take that box over a million pay-per-view buys.”
Though pay-per-view (PPV) buy numbers are difficult to pin down in the ESPN+ era, estimates typically start to emerge in the immediate week or two following an event. Stay tuned to find out if Adesanya’s hopes materialize.
Insomnia
Guram Kutateladze confirmed that he’s fighting Thiago Moises in January, an excellent match up of terrific unranked Lightweights.
Bryce Mitchell with an important PSA about the values of having fun while scooping poop:
Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Pettis!
Alex Pereira is terrifyingly intense.
Brad Riddell showing some good self-awareness in recognizing that he hasn’t been fully in the game for his past two fights. Whether he returns or not, best wishes to the Kiwi kickboxer.
An absolute banger at 205 lbs!
Michael Chandler once again is covered in ice, advising his sons on the perils of professional fighting.
Slips, rips, and KO clips
Anthony Johnson hit so damn hard he beat opponents before the fight began off reputation alone. RIP Rumble!
This is a thread about the greatest ko artist in UFC lightheavyweight history, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson. More specifically all his UFC ko’s in chronological order starting from his debut and semi retirement fight.
R.I.P. Rumble pic.twitter.com/ECjeonxYsy
— A_German_platypus ♂️ (@PlatypusGerman) November 14, 2022
Rumble will add another win to the column with one over Ryan Bader. He would finish this fight in the 1st with ground and pound.
Final verdict: ko/tko via punches 1:26 rd 1 pic.twitter.com/caBgOJCHsG
— A_German_platypus ♂️ (@PlatypusGerman) November 14, 2022
Chest to back connection is key regardless of whether hooks are in play.
Jungle Fight is a top-tier promotion in Brazil, so if this is arguably the promotion’s best fight of the year … WATCH IT!
Random Land
A unique hiking companion:
Midnight Music: Motown, 1968
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.
