Welcome to Midnight Mania!
Let’s start the night off by taking a look back at the three biggest stories of Thursday, May 8, 2025.
- Nicky Rod’s brother banned from Craig Jones’ B-Team for inappropriate interactions with women: Making AI porn of your female team mates (allegedly) is absolutely CRAZY work. We’re living in the future, and it’s a dark place.
- ‘It was me!’ — UFC champ claims responsibility for hacking Alex Pereira’s social media account: Magomed Ankalaev claims responsibility for the Alex Pereira “hack,” which I do not believe for a second is a real thing.
- ‘Pissed’ Jose Aldo is reinvigorated and mean, threatens entire division ahead of UFC 315 return: ‘They need to be worried’: I am begging UFC to book Jose Aldo in interesting match ups if he’s victorious this weekend. Aldo vs. Figgy or Cejudo would be such a banger!
Insomnia
It’s hard to deny Khabib when he almost never lost a round, but prime BJ Penn was an absolute force as well. I don’t consider this an unreasonable take, even if I would back “The Eagle” in a head-on match up during their respective primes.
If Kayla Harrison has more than five fights left in her at 135-pounds, I would be absolutely shocked. It’s clearly a miserable cut for her, and that’s going to show up in performance one way or another.
Jack Della Maddalena nonchalantly dropping one of the meanest quips in recent memory tells me he would make for an interesting champion outside of the cage too.
“La Leyenda” is dead, long live “El Matador.”
Barring a quick KO, this will be a really good test of whether Gregory Rodrigues can manage his cardio against top talent.
A deep dive into the boxing counters of JDM:
UFC is making more money than ever for the least interesting quarter of fighting in recent memory. The question is whether that’s sustainable?
UFC revenue for the first quarter of 2025 increased to $359.7 million — up 15% from 2024 — primarily driven by live events and hospitality revenue as well as partnerships and marketing revenue#UFC pic.twitter.com/ygnnnDK1e7
— Damon Martin (@DamonMartin) May 8, 2025
Meanwhile, PFL is actually heading to South Africa and probably losing money on the venture. Times are strange!
Johnny Eblen will defend his middleweight title against Costello van Steenis at #PFLAfrica debut even in Cape Town, South Africa on July 26th.
In the co-main event, Dakota Ditcheva returns against Sumiko Inaba. pic.twitter.com/rSdVFsZ6wM
— MMA Orbit (@mma_orbit) May 7, 2025
Slips, rips, and KO clips
It’s been three years since one of the greatest one round fights in MMA history.
This spinning back kick landed dead center of mass — OUCH!
Sergey “Street Fighter” Romanov closes the show at NWPA with a brutal spinning back kick KO to the liver against UFC vet Claudio Ribeiro.
He hasn’t been active in MMA for a couple years, but that’s 6 wins in his last 7 fights for Romanov. #NWPA pic.twitter.com/Upin0t7YOy
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) May 7, 2025
Kadono uses a jab feint to draw out a counter that’s short, answers with a 1-2 same-side high kick of his own. Beautiful example of open stance striking and being first and third!
Random Land
The ocean floor is both fascinating and strange.
Midnight Music: Indie, 2020
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.