Midnight Mania! Michael Chiesa calls Colby Covington ‘the hardest fight’

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Michael Chiesa put on a hellish performance early today in his second main event, suffocating Neil Magny for the majority of five rounds. ‘The Maverick’ was really dominant on the mat as his wrestling ability extended his winning streak to four and put him in a fairly solid position of 170 pounds.

Chiesa took the opportunity to call out former interim champion Colby Covington in the cage. At the post-fight press conference, Chiesa elaborated on why he chose ‘Chaos’, and his response was intriguing.

“He’s the toughest match for me,” Chiesa said (transcript via MMAJunkie). ‘Stylistically, that man should beat me on a given Sunday. From a physical standout, from a mental warfare, there are not many boxes you can check that benefit me in that fight. But how can I say I want to be a champion if I do not want to fight with the best guys? Sometimes the best guys are the ones who are stylistically the hardest for you.

So when I look at the top five, I think it’s the hardest fight for me, so we’ll see what happens. If I fall short, I fall short. But I want to be the best, so I have to fight the best. So this is the guy and when I say I wanted the year I had to have last year, it seemed like it was just the same guy to call out, so we’ll see how everything shakes out. ‘

This is certainly a daring approach by Chiesa, who is likely to struggle to drag Covington to the mat on his terms. However, a win is likely to yield him a title shot, so the reward is definitely along with the risk.

Right now, the UFC is planning to match up against Covington against former friend / current foe Jorge Masvidal. However, the fight has struggled to materialize in the past, so maybe Chiesa will get his wish.

Insomnia

Conor McGregor traveling by boat to Fight Island is a highlight ‘Notorious’.

While he’s the subject of the Irishman, he’s open to a final rematch with Max Holloway! It would also be a fierce rematch.

Valentina Shevchenko against the heavy bag looks strikingly similar to most of her title defense.

Jessica Eye is … not popular, not even among her peers.

Did Aljamain Sterling miss anyone in his top five wrestlers on the Bantam weight list? Frankie Edgar has an argument.

Well, Neil Magny’s night did not go exactly as planned, but he did record a removal in the third round, which means he joined a pretty cool group.

Slips, tears and KO clippings

SUMO! Have you ever seen a man in this big wagon?

Speaking of athletic big men, this is one of the fastest kicks I’ve ever seen!

The whole cut is wild, but this double leg of the upper obstacle is especially frightening.

Random country

The best use of a toothpick since Benson Henderson!

Midnight Music: I spent my writing time today listening to Spotify’s Essential Folk playlist, so here’s a track from the mix.

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