Midnight Mania! Mokaev Reveals Source Of Baddy Beef

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Muhammad Mokaev’s dismissal of Paddy Pimblett over the weekend seemingly came out of nowhere. Both men were victorious at UFC London, but the two are three weight classes apart and at different stages of their career. Mokaev is a promising but little known prospect, whereas like it or not, Pimblett is on his way to becoming a major star … even if he’s banned from social media.

As it turns out, the beef perhaps isn’t so random. MMA Twitter forgets little, a previous exchange online between the two reveals the source. Roughly five years ago, Pimblett took issue with Mokaev walking out under the Union Jack and representing England as he wasn’t born there. Mokaev wasn’t happy then, and he clearly hasn’t forgotten.

The top prospect confirmed as much while speaking yesterday on The MMA Hour. He also mentions Pimblett’s previous comments about Georgia, which is the source of his ongoing feud with Ilia Topuria.

“I don’t like this guy,” Mokaev said. “I don’t want to talk about him too much, because in 2019 he said on Twitter [about me] that, ‘This guy shouldn’t represent England, because he wasn’t born here. He shouldn’t lift the British flag, he was not born here.’

“He talked bad about Georgian people, he talked bad about immigrants and not being welcoming in the U.K., and stuff like this. And people support this bulls—t guy? This is wrong. My coach, my team, nobody likes this guy, because he [says] too much about nationality, race and all these things – that’s low mentality,” Mokaev continued. “It’s low mentality when that’s all you have to say about somebody.”

Insomnia

I’m all for improving the judging and making the criteria more universal, but based on this reading, it sounds like judging is once again moving away from 10-8 rounds. That doesn’t seem like the answer to me …

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Slips, rips, and KO clips

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Random Land

SKETCHY!

Midnight Music: While I was off gallivanting around France, English rockers Black Midi released their latest studio LP, Hellfire. They’re now three-for-three on great albums in my book!

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