Welcome to Midnight Mania!
Jon Jones’ next step is unclear. UFC is unwilling and/or unable to meet his salary demands regarding a highly anticipated match up opposite Francis Ngannou, so for the moment, that bout isn’t happening. Recently, it was revealed that Jones was offered former champ Stipe Miocic in a clear-cut title eliminator, but Jones declined the bout in a series of since-deleted Tweets. In short, Jones appears very willing to play the waiting game.
While the division and negotiations continue to inch forward, Jones is training, and he’s definitely not dropping back down to 205 lbs. “Bones” has been working a lot in the past year or so to gain size and muscle, but there are concerns that more size will affect his speed and conditioning. Some of those worries are inspired by his muscly-but-lackluster performance vs. Ovince Saint Preux, as Jones did a lot of weight lifting prior to that bout too.
Still, Jones is confident that he’s moving in the right direction as an athlete. Check out the clip below of Jones hitting mitts, which Jones says is not his best.
Jones captioned the training footage, “Right now my training is focused around weightlifting, gaining weight and physical fitness, once I actually shift my focus to doing more martial arts it’s going to be a problem. Please don’t mistake this as my best ladies and gentlemen. Hope you enjoy.”
Jones also posted a clip of some conditioning training, alternating between tempo runs on the treadmill and kicks on the bag.
Insomnia
Chris Weidman is on the road to recovery.
Seems like Kevin Lee has found a foe for his return to 170 lbs.
Tony Ferguson with a nightly dose of crazy.
A first look at the next preliminary match ups for PFL:
Some might consider it a low blow, but going after Donald Cerrone’s sponsors is certainly a smart way for Diego Sanchez to fire back at “Cowboy.”
We all gotta do, what we all gotta do.
Slips, rips, and KO clips
Side kick to the throat is underrated.
UFC debuts don’t get much better than Michael Chandler’s first-round drubbing of Dan Hooker.
Referring back to the PFL tweet above, Ospanov is fighting UFC veteran Chris Wade to open the event.
Random Land
A pretty neat piece of architecture:
Midnight Music: Another stone-cold classic.
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.