Midnight Mania! Aljo Beefs with Rosas Jr “completely disrespectful”

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Raul Rosas Jr. is already developing a certain notoriety.

In September, the top prospect secured his spot on the UFC roster, earning a unanimous decision on “Contenders Series” just weeks shy of his 18th birthday. Rosas Jr. is still in high school, but that didn’t stop him from making a statement in his UFC debut at UFC 282, quickly submitting Jay Perrin to score a performance bonus.

Check out these highlights HERE!

Rosas Jr. has big goals, and he’s already spoken about his confidence challenging bantamweight center Aljamain Sterling. Clearly, Rosas Jr. still has a long way to go before breaking into the rankings of a talent-rich division like bantamweight, let alone the belt.

Confidence isn’t a bad thing in combat sports, and now Rosas Jr. has found himself on Sterling’s radar. ‘Aljo’ is unimpressed, however, revealing that an earlier run-in on the mats soured him on the young talent.

“I want to grab it again,” Sterling said (via BJPenn.com). “I caught it twice, the second time I went for a drill and they did this ‘king of the mat’. I told him I was taking it easy for the day, just trying to sweat it out and not go crazy. He was trying to pass my guard and started acting like a DJ on my head. I kind of laughed, and I thought, “Okay, this guy is a bit of a jerk right now.”

He continued, “Like I barely know this kid. Then I look to the right, and there’s his dad with the fucking camera tape. Like oh, it’s a fucking show and tell right now, you just record shit and say nothing. How cool you have champions coming here and you are completely disrespectful. He’s just an as*itty personality. One would have thought that someone would have taught him a certain etiquette. Like, going to gyms and stuff and training with other people, but I guess not.

” I have not asked [to record]nothing… It was weird.

Insomnia

The news below probably means very little to most readers, but here’s the story of the week: I first heard about Benito Lopez shortly after joining the Alpha Male team, circa 2015 He snuffed out a teammate in less than a minute, then maybe a year later he joined TAM full-time. He became a primary sparring partner and I got to see him roam the regional scene firsthand. I watched several of his recent regional fights live, including a remarkable eight-second jump knee knockout, and he quickly earned a shot on “Contenders Series.” Before literally every winner landed a contract, they earned their own in a thriller.

Unfortunately, injuries plagued his UFC career. I’ve trained with a lot of people over the years, but Lopez exemplified the “unpretentious with deadly instincts” type better than anyone I’ve ever met. He’s never been an incredible pure athlete – Benito is notorious for vomiting in training – but he has a sense of timing and a knack for creating collisions that stand out even among the best.

I don’t have any insider info on what to expect, but good luck to Oroville’s “Golden Boy.”

Titles that have aged badly:

Any Joel Alvarez fight is unmissable, and Zubaira Tukhugov ends up in crumbs more often than not. There will still be a huge difference in size…

The Strawweight division will simply be a better place once Tatiana Suarez returns in early 2023.

We rarely get great displays of defense in MMA, so take a second to appreciate Chris Curtis.

Some fan art of “The Great” Alexander Volkanovski:

Teofimo Lopez’s core strength is incredible, these exercises are HARD!

Slips, tears and KO clips

I wrote a whole monologue, so I thought I might as well include the aforementioned eight-second knockout clip.

Here is a street fight with bonus commentary.

You… can’t let that happen.

Random terrain

Ring bearer.

Midnight Music: Alternative Rock, 1994

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