Midnight Mania! Video: Teixeira And Pereira Separated In Heated Sparring Session

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Iron sharpens iron.

Glover Teixeira deserves some credit in helping Alex Pereira’s explosive UFC rise. Obviously, the explosive knockout artist had quite a bit of skill previous to his first trip into the Octagon, but having the jiu-jitsu black belt helped shore up his defensive wrestling and grappling a good deal. “Hands of Stone” is typically in Pereira’s corner too, helping his team mate to victory.

Of course, that relationship goes both ways. Teixeira’s style didn’t change massively en route to the title, but training with a world class kickboxer and knockout artist surely didn’t hurt his striking.

A mutually beneficial friendship doesn’t mean the duo cannot throw down though! In the clip above, Teixeira and Pereira are boxing sparring, staying in the pocket and trading blows. They’re clearly holding back their power a bit, but the doesn’t mean the sense of competition is gone, as their trade continues beyond the bell.

Currently, Pereira is scheduled to challenge old rival Israel Adesanya at UFC 281 on Nov. 12 in Madison Square Garden. Teixeira, meanwhile, is currently unbooked, but he’s expected to rematch Jiri Prochazka for the UFC Light Heavyweight title likely in early 2023.

Insomnia

Paulo Costa weighs in on Hasbulla.

I am genuinely shocked at the rise of slap fighting. Of all the dumb offshoots of fighting, why is this succeeding?

Unusual belt wrestling is more my speed.

Everyone should be a fan of Gregory Rodrigues.

Matt Brown ran afoul of some KSI fans, and indeed, Twitter is a strange place.

Twitter is so hilarious I tweeted that I didn’t know who ksi is and no one really answered just got a bunch of haters saying how he’s so much more famous than me. My goal has never been to be famous it’s only been to kick peoples asses and I could kick his ass so who cares lol

— Matt Brown (@IamTheImmortal) September 16, 2022

I don’t know the reason, but Charles Oliveira definitely doesn’t like this dude.

I have three takeaways from this clip: Bill Algeo is stupid tough, his forehead probably hurts real bad right now, and Andre Fili’s kick was probably two inches too high to score the one-hitter quitter.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Jose Aldo has a tremendous argument for greatest of all time. If your personal GOAT candidate relied upon take downs to win most fights, know that Aldo would beat his ass FOR SURE!

23-year-old José Aldo. A deadly combo of speed and skills far ahead of his time. The featherweight GOAT and one of the greatest fighters MMA has ever seen. NINE title defenses, not seven. Mark that down in his HOF induction. @josealdojunior pic.twitter.com/Jsv9U9w5oj

— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) September 18, 2022

High-flying knockdowns!

AMC Fight Nights middleweight champ Vladimir Mineev returned to kickboxing after 8 years to hand Erko Jun a beating at Lotus Cup 2022. Credit to Jun, not sure how he even survived the first knockdown.#LotusCup2022 pic.twitter.com/HEaKrBr9ZR

— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) September 16, 2022

One of my favorite moments in UFC history came when Chris Leben scored his comeback win over Yoshihiro Akiyama to score his second win in two weeks. This is a good one also: