Midnight Mania! Stickland Unloads On Keyboard Warrior Belal

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Sean Strickland is almost exactly 24 hours away from his UFC 302 co-main event slot versus Paulo Costa, a highly-anticipated Middleweight match up that could earn the victor a title shot. It’s a hugely important fight for Strickland, one that could set him up for massive rematches against Dricus Du Plessis or Israel Adesanya.

Despite the vital upcoming match up, Strickland has time for various beefs this week. He’s already taken UFC to task for crappy paychecks and a botched glove revamp, as well as verbally attacked a robot for complimenting Conor McGregor’s attractiveness. When comedian Jon-Bernard Kairouz brought up Belal Muhammad — who’s been actively trashing Strickland in recent weeks — the former Middleweight champion didn’t hold back.

“Such a f—king little bitch bro,” Strickland said of Muhammad. “Every time I see this motherf—ker in person, I’m always like ‘Hey, Belal Muhammad, you f—king Miaman, wherever the f—k you’re from, let’s handle this s—t!’ He puts his head down and goes away, and little f—king twiddle thumbs gets on the twiddler and starts talking shit.

“Listen dude: go to f—king Palestine. Go f—king fight for your f—king country. Get the f—k out of here, you f—king can.”

As for how Muhammad fares in his upcoming title bout versus Leon Edwards? “I think Leon is going to f—king starch him!”

This feud has been going on for years now, and unfortunately, there’s no reconciliation or fight booking in sight. Both men are right in the title mix of their prospective divisions, but until Muhammad jumps to 185-pounds or Strickland cuts back down to Welterweight, it seems like to remain a social media scrap.

... Or maybe they collide at the UFC PI?

Insomnia

Ponzinibbio vs. Salikhov is such good matchmaking. Veteran Welterweight strikers collide!

Jiri Prochazka spent time training with Shaolin monks! The former Light Heavyweight king has been on a lot of interesting side quests lately.

This is quite a random mix of UFC stars taking on the bumper car track.

So, uhh, UFC’s latest sponsor sounds like a bunch of nonsense.

A compilation of Dustin Poirier’s attempts at the guillotine! It really only goes wrong when he jumps guard.

A light spar between Middleweight champions:

The WWE and UFC synergy thing is really happening.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Angled the knee right under the armpit and hit the chin perfectly.

This high kick was thrown at the perfect height, just over the shoulder and at the top of the head.

This ringside footage of a brutal clinch attack is downright gnarly.

Random Land

A fancy peacock.

Midnight Music: Hip-hop, 1998

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

LIVE! Watch UFC 302 PPV On ESPN+ Here!

’GARDEN STATE’ SHOWDOWN! Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returns to Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., on Sat., June 1, 2024, featuring Lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev, locking horns with 155-pound legend and No. 4-seeded contender, Dustin Poirier, in the pay-per-view (PPV) main event of the evening. UFC 302’s co-headliner features an action-packed, 185-pound scrap between No. 1-ranked contender, Sean Strickland, squaring off with Brazilian beefcake, Paulo Costa, in a five-round special attraction. UFC 302’s PPV main card (see it here) will also feature Kevin Holland vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk, Jailton Almeida vs. Alexandr Romanov and so much more. It’s must-watch action! UFC 302 start time scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET (Prelims) and 10 p.m. ET (PPV).

Don’t miss a single second of EPIC face-punching action!

• STREAM UFC 302