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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Former UFC Flyweight champion Alexa Grasso is having a difficult 2024. Earlier on Monday, Grasso revealed in an Instagram post that she suffered a broken leg in training. She posted a picture in a cast, so it’s safe to say it will be a while before we see her back in the Octagon.

“I broke my leg training,” Grasso wrote in the caption (via Google Translate). “But I’m fine … everything heals … time by time. Send me a lot of love so that that bone sticks well please.”

Back in September, Grasso coughed up her golden title at UFC 306 to longtime 125-pound queen Valentina Shevchenko. After two highly competitive fights that resulted in a Grasso submission win and a draw, the rubber match was intended to definitively settle the rivalry. Unfortunately for Grasso, she ended up on the wrong side of a one-sided decision, leaving her with no clear path back to the title.

On the bright side, Grasso still has time to rebound from the injury and the defeat at 31 years of age. Hopefully, she’ll back in action next year, but it’s difficult to estimate a return timeline with specific injury details.

Insomnia

If Jimmy Crute somehow loses this fight, it’s officially over for the Australian prospect (still just 28!).

The Jan Blachowicz special!

“There is no meme, Neil Magny is dead.”

Somebody please save UFC 310 and fight Shavkat.

Deontay Wilder deserves some credit for coming up with creative excuses after defeat.

I wonder who Sean Strickland is taking a shot at …

Perspective is a funny thing.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Inside hip position and good grips win the day!

Can Kris Moutinho work his way back into the UFC? Maybe UFC will give him a shot on Contenders Series given his current streak.

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a flying shin land quite like this.

Random Land

Mountain goats are renowned for their climbing ability, not their descending skills.

Midnight Music: Alternative, 2022

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

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Shavkat Rakhmonov and Colby Covington appear to be on the same page, whether they realize it or not.

With UFC 310 in flux due to welterweight champion Belal Muhammad recently being forced to withdraw from his Dec. 7 fight with Rakhmonov, several names have lined up to potentially take on the undefeated Kazakhstan native. In an interview with Submission Radio, Covington speculated that he’d fare well in a potential fight with Rakhmonov, while former welterweight titleholder Kamaru Usman said on his podcast that he’s open to taking a short-notice call to face Rakhmonov despite their having previously trained at the same gym.

Rakhmonov responded to the comments on social media, daring his rivals to put pen to paper.

“All I hear are empty callouts,” Rakhmonov wrote. “No real intention, no action. Just posturing for media and fans.”

It didn’t take long for Covington to log on and respond, telling Rakhmonov’s manager Daniel Rubenstein to translate a message for him.

“Someone just showed me Rubenstein’s tweet for that big dummy ‘Shitrat,’” Covington said, implying Rakhmonov did not write his own tweet. “Listen up, junior, translate this to whatever caveman dialect you need to and get it through that big empty skull attached to that Gumby-ass body. I don’t posture and I don’t bluff. As soon as I get off this beautiful five-star Trump golf course… I’m calling Hunter and Dana, and we can all see who’s posturing for clicks, bozo.”

It is not yet known if Rakhmonov will end up fighting at UFC 310 or if his matchup with Muhammad—out due to a toe infection—will be re-booked for a later date. Should Covington get the call and an interim title be put on the line, it will mark Covington’s fifth UFC title fight.

Covington defeated Rafael dos Anjos for an interim welterweight belt in 2018, but lost a pair of title fights to Kamaru Usman and then one to Leon Edwards in his most recent outing this past December.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Deontay Wilder vs. Francis Ngannou? It could happen.

Ngannou made a successful return to MMA competition this past October with a thudding first-round knockout of Renan Ferreira at PFL Battle of the Giants. It was Ngannou’s first MMA fight since January 2022 as he parted ways with the UFC in 2023, signed with PFL, and then participated in a pair of high-profile boxing bouts against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.

After defeating Ferreira, Ngannou dedicated the win to his son Kobe, who died tragically this past April. He declined to comment on what his next move would be, though boxing remains on the table and Wilder is interested in negotiating a potential matchup of heavyweight stars.

“Even since I’ve been off, there’s been a lot of offers coming in,” Wilder told TMZ Sports. “A lot of things in different countries and stuff like that. Even with Francis, hope everything is going good for you, I’m sorry for your loss. I can only imagine what it’s like to lose a child. I never hope to even feel that feeling of it. I hope life is going beautiful for you, bro.”

“That’s a conversation I’m still looking to get in there in the mix and talk about,” Wilder added when asked about fighting Ngannou.

Wilder, a former WBC titleholder, is mired in the worst slump of his career with just one win in his past five outings. This past April, he lost to Zhilei Zhang via fifth-round TKO. The 39-year-old is still highly regarded for his finishing power, with all but one of his 43 career wins coming by way of KO/TKO.

Ngannou is 0-2 as a pro, though he was widely praised for scoring a knockdown of Fury en route to a controversial split decision loss. Against Joshua, his loss was more definitive as he was knocked out in the second round.

Regardless of what the official record says, Wilder won’t overlook Ngannou if they step into the ring together.

“Any fight is competitive,” Wilder said. “When you’ve got a man that’s got two hands and two feet and he’s got a heart, that will to win, you’ve got competition. You’ve got a fight on your hands. That’s why when you get in the ring you respect every man that steps in there. You just never know what dog he may bring to the fight.”

It’s unknown when Wilder will be able to compete as he told TMZ Sports he suffered an arm injury (“two tears in my shoulder”) in November 2023 ahead of losses to Zhang and Joseph Parker. Speaking about his recovery, Wilder is optimistic that he can continue to perform at high level.

“For me, the best is yet to come,” Wilder said. “We’re still going. We’re still here. We just get things together, I’m just handling a lot of things. I had a lot of outside distractions that I had to get rid of, a lot of burden upon me. I took care of a lot of people and it just became to a point where I just couldn’t do it no more. I’ve got seven kids of my own, I can’t take care of everybody.”

“Even the closest ones to me, I’ve been betrayed by so many people. It’s been a domino effect over the last five years. If anybody knows about betrayal, it’s worse than heartbreak.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Jon Jones might want to add another championship to his resume after UFC 309.

Just days away from returning to defend his UFC heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic in the main event from Madison Square Garden in New York, the incumbent champion addressed his recent comments where he stated rather emphatically that he had no interest in facing off with Tom Aspinall but instead suggested a potential showdown with reigning light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.

While he’s faced blowback for that declaration, Jones stands by his decision but he’s also not looking to hold up a division or stop Aspinall from claiming the title once he’s gone. In fact, Jones says as much as he likes the idea of defending the heavyweight title against Pereira, he’d be willing to give up that belt with hopes that a different championship could potentially go up for grabs.

“It’d be cool to fight over the heavyweight championship but I would also willingly give up the heavyweight championship,” Jones told SportsNet on Monday. “I walked away from the light heavyweight championship. I’d love to walk away from this one as well on top, on [my] own terms, good head on your shoulders, making lots of money. I love the position that I’m in right now.

“Fighting Pereira for the ‘BMF’ belt, that would be cool. We both have two belts in two weight classes and the night we fought we’d both be fighting for our third belt, which would be the ‘BMF.’ How cool would that be?”

Jones suggesting a “BMF” title fight throws a whole new wrinkle into this potential matchup, especially given his long history as arguably the greatest fighter of all-time while Pereira has quickly earned a reputation as one of the nastiest knockout artists to ever compete in the UFC.

There is a current “BMF” champion in Max Holloway but that belt isn’t exactly weight class specific.

The first ever “BMF” title went to Jorge Masvidal after he defeated Nick Diaz at welterweight and then the belt moved to Justin Gaethje following a vicious knockout over Dustin Poirier at lightweight. Gaethje then lost the belt to Holloway at UFC 300 but who’s to say a second “BMF” title couldn’t get introduced for Jones vs. Pereira?

As much as Jones likes that idea, he also takes issue with the way things have played after he essentially dismissed Aspinall as a possible opponent worthy of his attention.

Aspinall might have an interim title wrapped around his waist right now but Jones doesn’t believe that belt should have been introduced in the first place.

A torn pectoral muscle prevented him from fighting Miocic back in November 2023 and in his absence, the UFC crowned Aspinall as the new interim champion after he knocked out Sergei Pavlovich. In Jones’ opinion, that fight ultimately created more problems than it solved.

“The interim championship shouldn’t have been there in the first place,” Jones said. “The only reason why there was an interim championship fight was because I got hurt and they needed to keep the importance of that Madison Square Garden event. But Sergei [Pavlovich] and Aspinall shouldn’t have been fighting for an interim title in the first place.

“They should have just been a replacement fight. A main event fight. I think making it an interim [title] fight was premature. Now you have a bunch of confused people.”

Jones believes he should have been given the opportunity to heal up from his injury and just return to defend the heavyweight championship without an interim title lingering in the shadows.

“When you have a dominant champion that’s been around as long as I have, there was no reason to put an interim championship belt out there,” Jones said. “That’s the repercussion of Madison Square Garden last year.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

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