Welcome to Midnight Mania!
Welcome to the “Chito” show.
Marlon Vera’s strategy ahead of UFC 252 may or may not have involved injuring Sean O’Malley’s leg with calf kicks and checks, but it certainly worked! When presented with a wounded foe, Vera pounced, absolutely smashing his opponent with an elbow from top position to secure the finish.
After all the trash talk from “Suga,” it was pretty glorious.
Talking with MMAFighting, Vera revealed that it wasn’t just O’Malley doing the gabbing. Instead, his corner team has been throwing insults as well, dating back to O’Malley’s victory over Eddie Wineland. “They won a fight against Eddie Wineland. I was already booked to fight [Jimmie Rivera] and they started calling me out,” Vera explained. “The coaches are calling me out. Where the f*ck do you see a high level coach doing that? A coach can have an opinion: ‘I would like my pupil to fight X guy,’ but those guys were talking sh*t. ‘Chito’s easy money,’ and blah blah blah.
“My answer to them after the Wineland fight, I told them ‘Enjoy your couple minutes of fame because as a fighter, you are sh*t.’ Guess what? They keep calling me out. He was about to become the greatest coach ever if his guys kept beating people out because that’s how media works. He’d become this massive, whatever. I f*cked up all of their sh*t.
Vera continued on to say that O’Malley’s corner actively talked trash during the fight, leading to a reprimand from the referee, “They kept yelling sh*t. Even Herb Dean told them to shut the f*ck up when the fight started. They’re yelling, ‘F*ck him, he’s scared.’ Why are you talking? Scared? I’m f*cking out there ready to die. I’m not letting you take money from my family. I’m not letting you take my ranking, I’m not letting you take nothing from me right now.
“If you’re talking sh*t, you better bring that same energy win or lose. If I’m insulting you, and I lose, I’m still gonna insult you after the fight.”
Regarding all his trash talk with O’Malley and team, Vera is unbothered by the situation, largely because there’s an actual opportunity to make it right inside the cage. “People are mean on social media because, in other sports, they can say something and get away with it,” Vera explained. “In other sports if you talk wild, you get a sanction, a fine, or money taken away from you. The UFC lets you get away with it, which is cool. I don’t mind the trash talk. I enjoy it, I actually have fun. My vocabulary was pretty bad when I won, but some people get away with things. The only problem is that you get baptized. If you want to talk wild, make sure you bring a pair of balls to the cage.”
Somehow, a rematch down the line does not seem impossible. Until then, however, Vera is far ahead both in terms of trash talk and actual results.
Insomnia
Seriously, O’Malley is not handling his loss well. Dancing around after a foot injury that ended the fight doesn’t make one look tougher …
Rumor mill: UFC 252 did 500k pay-per-view buys, which is … decent but not amazing?
Personally, Justin Gaethje is not the fighter I would choose to steal from.
This guy just stole a bike from my garage in Denver/Lakewood, CO. If anybody knows a private investigator around the Denver area I’d be happy to hire him. pic.twitter.com/z9Bw3rcEsD
— Justin Gaethje (@Justin_Gaethje) August 19, 2020
Edson Barboza vs. his son is must-watch content.
Funk rolls for days!
The Ben Askren and Chase Hooper saga has no right to actually be this funny.
Slips, rips, and KO clips
I’m going to keep calling it the Von Flue choke because he did it first and that’s how I learned it, but Ovince Saint Preux is something special regardless.
Two very heavy punches direct to the chin:
A compilation of spinning sh*t!
Random Land
We play dodge ball as part of our warm-ups every Thursday at TAM, and I am INSPIRED right now.
Midnight Music: “I’ve been uninspired since Lauryn Hill retired.”
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.
