Midnight Mania! Daniel Cormier gushes over ‘evolution of mixed martial arts’ Ilia Topuria

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Cage facet commentator Daniel Cormier walked away from UFC Jacksonville, which passed off over the weekend (Sat. June 24, 2023), extremely impressed with Featherweight standout Ilia Topuria.

It’s straightforward to grasp why. Topuria took aside veteran contender Josh Emmett, battering the previous title challenger throughout 5 rounds (see scorecards right here). His boxing appeared sharper than ever, however actually Topuria’s complete well-rounded sport was on show in his first five-round reserving. Now 14-0, Topuria has made it clear he intends to attend for a title shot until Max Holloway desires to take a sojourn to Barcelona.

“DC” backs his choice, and he thinks the potential match ups towards Yair Rodriguez and Alexander Volkanovski can be electrical.

“I’m OK with him going proper right into a title struggle,” Cormier defined on ESPN (through MMA Junkie). “I feel he’s that prepared. This child confirmed conditioning over 25 minutes, he confirmed a capability to compete all over the place, and he actually did simply dominate. I feel that he matches up comparatively nicely towards all of them. The technical struggle between him and Yair (Rodriguez) can be loopy, however then additionally to look at him struggle the champion, (Alexander) Volkanovski, with their talent units – incredible fights throughout the board at 145.”

Past his instant probability at capturing the world title, Cormier was massively impressed by Topuria’s composure and expertise at such a younger age. Topuria’s solely been on the roster since 2020, and he’s persistently proven unbelievable potential regardless of his comparatively small quantity of expertise.

“He’s younger. He’s like 25 years outdated or 26 years outdated. He hasn’t fought a lot,” Cormier continued. “The one factor that you might even take as a detrimental was he didn’t do the fighter conferences as a result of he was reducing weight. That’s actually the one misstep. He needed to get his weight down, and that’s not likely a misstep.

“You’ll be able to’t choose him harshly in something that he did over the course of the primary essential occasion week that he’s ever had. He’s calm. He’s collected. His demeanor outdoors of the octagon interprets so nicely contained in the octagon. He’s on the excessive guard, he’s in there, he units all the pieces up – he wastes nothing. This dude is simply – he actually is next-level and he’s the evolution of combined martial arts.”

Insomnia

Newest estimates courtesy of John Nash put UFC paying 13% of its income to fighters in 2022. a lower from 2021. Ignoring all of the morality concerned: isn’t the worth lower apparent within the product itself?

Working example:

Rodtang vs. Takeru has to occur, it’s that straightforward.

I don’t know who wants to listen to this, however HENDO is a legend.

Jammal Emmers is dealing with a controversial choice loss in the very best style.

I don’t really feel sorry for me. I realized earlier in life that life isn’t honest. Simply to assume it’s in all probability somebody in jail proper now and by no means dedicated against the law. Kids with no mother and father, people who received their identities stolen. I simply misplaced a 15 minute match. I’ll be again.

— Jamall Emmers (@prettyboyemmers) June 25, 2023

Is having your staff mate beat somebody that you might not likely an efficient type of revenge? Good over evil? This can be a bizarre publish.

SWEEP!

Slips, rips, and KO clips

This can be a candy pair of kicks tied collectively for the KO, however the very first thing I observed was how filled with a crowd Jungle Combat drew! That promotion has produced so many nice fighters.

About as frozen from a punch as is humanly doable:

Hooking the leg to complete the reverse triangle is high-level method! Not a straightforward strangle to complete.