Midnight Roundup! Jon Anik "tired" of UFC fans, Conor McGregor competes with 'The Rock', Dricus du Plessis gets a hero's welcome, and more
The negativity of UFC fans may have turned Jon Anik's interest away from the MMA space. Elsewhere, Conor McGregor may have made a world record but outside of the fighting cage.
Below are your most exciting MMA tidbits, presented by Sportskeeda's Midnight Roundup.
Jon Anik: "I am growing tired of this MMA space"
Jon Anik recently hinted at retiring from MMA analysis and moving on to another sport due to the hateful comments from fans.
Anik stated on The Anik & Florian Podcast:
"I am growing tired of this MMA space a little bit and just the morass of negativity when there is a close fight... I go to our YouTube comments, it seems like a lot of these fans are just in attack mode... But I'm getting to a point at 45 years of age where I don't know how much more time I have left in this MMA space."
This comes after fans harshly criticized his take on the Sean Strickland vs. Dricus du Plessis decision.
Conor McGregor claims he beat Dwayne Johnson
In a recently deleted tweet, Conor McGregor claimed he is now "officially the highest paid first-time actor of all time, on record, pipping Dwyane Johnson for the top spot".
The WWE superstar, popularly known as 'The Rock', made his Hollywood debut in the 2001 movie The Mummy Returns co-starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. He reportedly got paid $5.5. million for his portrayal of the Scorpion King. The figure was a Guinness World Record for a debuting actor at the time.
If the UFC star has truly made a similar figure or more, he got paid around $6 million to $10 million for his role in Jake Gyllenhaal-starrer movie, Road House.
Dricus du Plessis gets a hero's welcome in South Africa
With bruises on his face still visible from the fight with Sean Strickland fight, Dricus du Plessis arrived in South Africa with his belt. The newly-crowned UFC middleweight champion was met with an enormous crowd cheering and chanting to celebrate his achievement.
Logan Paul in a brawl on live IG
Logan Paul got into an all-out brawl with fellow WWE star Kevin Owens on an Instagram Live stream. After a brief trash-talk, Owens rushed onto the ring where Paul was training and hands were thrown on both sides. The two had to be separated by security and others present at the scene.
The incident is likely to be part of WWE kayfabe.
Conor McGregor tweets-and-deletes sparring session
With Road House nearing its release, Conor McGregor has seemingly not taken his eyes off training. The UFC star recently tweeted and deleted a set of videos where he's seen sparring in the boxing ring.
Another UFC fighter on Israel-Palestine
Kevin Lee, who returned to the UFC in 2023 after a brief stint with Khabib Nurmagomedov's Eagle Fighting Championship, spoke up on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. He also converted to Islam last year.
"Self-defense is not terrorism. Resistance is not terrorism. I haven’t heard one argument to justify what Israel has done to Palestine. Free Palestine, end war and suffering."
Read More:
Max Holloway has "towel gate" beef with Justin Gaethje
Paulo Costa shows off abs but fans aren't convinced he's fighting
Jon Jones gets called fat to his face
5 factors that can derail Dricus du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya
Midnight Trailer!
Watch the brand new trailer of the Road House remake featuring Jake Gyllenhaal and Conor McGregor: