Welcome to Midnight Mania!
Michel Pereira is riding a solid wave of momentum. The Brazilian has won five in a row at 170 lbs., recently picking up a performance bonus and Top 15 ranking by taking out Santiago Ponzinibbio. This story comes from his victory before that, however, when Ponzinibbio scored a hard-fought win over Andre Fialho at UFC 270.
Understandably, “Demolidor” wanted to celebrate a tough victory with his team. However, when his post-fight party spilled out into the hotel hallway, it pissed off a fellow UFC 270 competitor. Francis Ngannou, fresh off his title defense and trashed knee, was not too pleased with the rowdy group.
“We celebrated my victory at the hotel, had fun,” Pereira began telling Canal Encarada (via Ngannou_MMA) And we are such guys – we move only with music, we constantly light up, even when we cut weight. I always rock, and my guys are the same. Constantly moving noisily, having parties. Guerra was drinking there non-stop, everyone was joking, bantering. And our room was next door to Ngannou.
And since the room was small, and there were a lot of people, someone suggested, ‘Let’s sit in the hallway?’ And we sat down in the corridor, and immediately came out to us – who would you think? Ngannou. The guys look at each other like that, ‘Wow, Ngannou is coming.’
He comes up and says, ‘Hey, do you think it’s real to fall asleep when there’s such a noise? How do I sleep, huh?’ Honestly, at that moment I felt uncomfortable. I was after a hard fight, my nose was broken, my legs were beaten off. If Ngannou started a fight, what would I do to him? The team is already all drunk, they wouldn’t have helped me in any way.”
With few options left aside from an altercation with an angry Heavyweight champion, Pereira and company agreed to turn down the music and slow the party. Looking back on it, however, the Brazilian regrets his decision and is unhappy with “The Predator.”
“Honestly, Ngannou made me angry. Why couldn’t he address us politely? He was lucky that I was all beaten up and couldn’t do anything, especially for a guy of this size. I don’t even want to think about it. I know he’s a modest, nice guy, but why couldn’t he tell us politely, ‘Hey, guys, could you …’ I didn’t like the way he spoke to us. You need to be polite to people. If he had addressed us politely, we would have retained respect for him forever. And so – we just fell silent. ‘What the f—k?! Do you think you can fall asleep with such noise?’ Bro, we were just drinking … You have to be polite to people. I could have answered him too, ‘Bro, go f—k. Who are you anyway?’”
Fortunately for everyone involved, cooler heads prevailed, and there was no major hallway clash. Fighter hotels have been the site of several notable conflicts in recent memory, like Chael Sonnen’s alleged rampage or Ilia Topuria’s attempt to shut up Paddy Pimblett.
Insomnia
A quick note of apology: for some reason, halfway through creating this post, I was unable to embed any Instagram content. Hopefully, this bug will be resolved quickly, lest this column completely rely on Twitter for too long.
Anyway …
Jamahal Hill is not about to let Thiago Santos settle into a boring kick-for-kick contest. One way or another, someone is going down!
Terrance McKinney has some bold opinions about the Lightweight GOAT rankings.
Kevin Holland with some additional footage from his latest heroics.
Yes, this is real, and yes, it’s incredible. Why does it look like raw beef?
Can Augusto Sakai rebound opposite Sergei Spivac? The Brazilian is in pretty major need of a victory after losing three in a row.
Many online are speculating that Khamzat Chimaev vs. Leon Edwards for the interim belt is next due to Kamaru Usman’s hand injury.
Slips, rips, and KO clips
Will you be watching the “Pudzian” fight this weekend?
A uniquely painful angle for mounted elbows …
Just a mauling by Argentina’s Mauro Mastromarini in the SFH co-main. Carlos Gomez doesn’t answer the bell after R2. Brutal downward elbows. “Dinamita” improves his record to 13-1.#SFH4 pic.twitter.com/yPSsxq2wLM
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) May 23, 2022
This jump knee went about as wrong as possible.
Random Land
A pretty incredible painting!
Midnight Music: Blues? Folk? Soul? 1970
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.