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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

It’s been a rough week for Cody Garbrandt. Just a few days removed from his co-main event slot versus Miles Johns at UFC Vegas 100, “No Love” was forced to withdraw with an undisclosed issue. It’s a tough way to end the year, as Garbrandt was aiming to return to the win column after a competitive loss to Deiveson Figueiredo back at UFC 300 (watch here).

There was a time when Garbrandt was on the absolute top of the world. Back in 2015, Garbrandt was an undefeated UFC champion at just 25 years of age. Based on the way he handled Dominick Cruz to capture gold, he looked destined to reign over the Bantamweights for a while. Instead, it was former champion TJ Dillashaw who stopped him in consecutive fights, ending Garbrandt’s time at the top.

On a recent episode of The Casuals MMA, Dillashaw reflected on his rivalry with Garbrandt and also revealed that UFC invested a massive amount of promotion and money into turning “No Love” into the “next Conor McGregor.”

“He had a lot of pressure on him too,” Dillashaw said of Garbrandt. “He had an amazing fight against Cruz. I’ve never seen Cody Garbrandt be that good. His style is perfect for Cruz. He’s by far the fastest human being I’ve ever trained with when it comes to reaction times and how quick he is. He’s got great wrestling, and he’s got power in his hands, so it was a perfect match up for him.

“Coming off that, UFC was like ‘Hey, this is our next big horse, let’s put some money into him.’ So they market the s—t out of him, put him in a bunch of commercials, got some celebrities behind him. From what I was told, they put like $ 6 million into marketing him before our fight, gave us The Ultimate Fighter. So he went to massive stardom — way bigger than me — fast. They wanted him to be the next Conor McGregor, like run your mouth. I wouldn’t say he was the sharpest tool in the shed to be able to do something like that, so he just like said s—t, and he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Whenever Garbrandt does return, he’ll on the final fight of his current UFC contract. Garbrandt is still just 33 years of age, so it’ll be very interesting to see whether or not UFC continues invest in “No Love.”

Insomnia

Did Caio Machado probably deserve the nod against Brendson Ribeiro? Sure. Are either good enough to be UFC fighters? Absolutely not.

I don’t love hearing about fighters and neck surgeries. All the best to Roosevelt Roberts in recovery!

Bo Nickal vs. Shara Magomedov sounds very goofy, and I’m here for that.

Marlon Vera’s excellent cardio has a simple explanation: road work!

It’s rare that an excuse (for a win no less) is revealed five years later.

We need more big MMA fighters doing strongman stuff like bending frying pans.

Petr Yan showing off his footwork:

Think Gable Steveson actually makes the switch?

Slips, rips, and KO clips

UFC Vegas 100 being a complete disaster is only appropriate, but take a moment to remember better times.

A good example of sitting up into the arm-in guillotine:

Body shots on a wounded opponent are almost always a good idea.

Random Land

Pastry is life.

Midnight Music: I love three versions of this song. Here’s the least known one:

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

MMAmania.com – All Posts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Reug Reug is finally a champion.

On Friday night at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, Reug Reug — real name Oumar Kane — claimed the ONE heavyweight title with a narrow split decision win Anatoly Malykhin in the main event of ONE Championship 169.

A former Senegalese wrestler, Reug Reug’s size proved to be difficult for the three-division ONE champion to deal with as he scored a quick takedown early in the fight. Malykhin worked his way back up to the feet but the two remained grappling against the ropes and Malykhin received a yellow card for repeatedly reaching through the ropes.

As the fight progressed, Malykhin began to land big shots on the feet but simply couldn’t crack the chin of his massive opponent, and was himself dropped in the final round of the bout. Still, the bout seemed to favor Malykhin for sheer activity however, two of the judges scored the fight for Reug Reug, delivering Malykhin his first career loss.

In the co-main event, Rodtang Jitmuangnon scored a unanimous decision win over Jacob Smith. This was supposed to be a title defense of Rodtang’s ONE flyweight Muay Thai title, however he failed to make weight and was thus stripped of the title. Nevertheless, Rodtang delivered a vintage performance, outclassing Smith and slicing him open with a nasty elbow over the eye.

In a featured bout of the evening, Jackie Buntan defeated Anissa Meksen to claim the inaugural ONE women’s flyweight kickboxing title. The two women battled back-and-forth for the full 15 minutes but ultimately the judges favored Buntan’s more decisive moments.

In one of the featured fights of the evening, Adriano Moraes got back in the win column with a second-round guillotine finish over Danny Kingad. It was the former flyweight champion’s first fight since losing his trilogy matchup with Demetrious Johnson, and may set him up to fight for the vacant title next.

Also of note on the card, Kade Ruotolo scored the second win of his MMA career with a first-round submission after dropping opponent Ahmed Mujtba early, and multiple-time world champion BJJ competitor Carlos Buchecha submitted Amir Aliakbari in the first round as well.

Check out those highlights as well as the full results below.

ONE 169 full results.

Reug Reug def. Anatoly Malykhin via split decision

Rodtang Jitmuangnon def. Jacob Smith (Muay Thai) via unanimous decision

Jackie Buntan def. Anissa Meksen (kickboxing) via unanimous decision

Adriano Moraes def. Danny Kingad via submission (rear-naked choke) — R2, 4:14

Kongthoranee Sor Sommai def. Tagir Khalilov (Muay Thai) via unanimous decision

Kade Ruotolo def. Ahmed Mujtba via submission (D’Arce choke) — R1. 1:04

Sam-A Gaiyanghadao def. Zhang Peimian via unanimous decision

Marcus Buchecha def. Amir Aliakbari via submission (rear-naked choke) — R1, 3:15

Mohamed Younes Rabah def. Eddie Abasolo (Muay Thai) via unanimous decision

Ayaka Miura def. Macarena Aragon via scarfhold americana — R1, 2:22

Aliff Sor Dechapan def. Walter Goncalves (Muay Thai) via unanimous decision

MMA Fighting – All Posts

UFC

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

MMA Fighting has UFC Vegas 100 Results for the Magny vs. Prates fight card, a live blog for the top two fights, and more from UFC APEX in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

In the main event, Neil Magny and Carlos Prates square off in a welterweight contest. Magny has lost three of the past five fights, while Prates has won all three of his UFC fights.

Gerald Meerschaert welcomes former two-division ONE Championship titleholder Reinier de Ridder to the UFC in a middleweight fight in the co-main event.

Check out the UFC Vegas 100 results below.

Main card (ESPN+ at 7 p.m. ET)

Neil Magny vs. Carlos Prates

Gerald Meerschaert vs. Reinier de Ridder

Gaston Bolanos vs. Cortavious Romious

Luana Pinheiro vs. Gillian Robertson

Mansur Abdul-Malik vs. Dusko Todorovic

Prelims (ESPN+ at 4 p.m. ET)

Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs. Denise Gomes

Elizeu Zaleski vs. Zach Scroggin

Matthew Semelsberger vs. Charlie Radtke

Cody Stamann vs. Da’Mon Blackshear

Tresean Gore vs. Antonio Trocoli

Melissa Mullins vs. Klaudia Sygula

MMA Fighting – All Posts

UFC

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

UFC 309 is just around the corner, with Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic set to finally face off. Should the winner decide not to retire, does a megafight with Alex Pereira or Tom Aspinall await?

Chael Sonnen thinks fans hoping to have that question answered need to pump their brakes.

On an episode of Good Guy/Bad Guy, Sonnen claimed that he has reason to believe neither Pereira nor Aspinall will get the winner of next Saturday’s main event; rather, they’ll have to fight each other first.

“I have always believed—and this is nothing more than rumor—and I back this with a little evidence, but I have always maintained that Pereira’s next fight will be against Aspinall and it will be for the interim [heavyweight] title,” Sonnen said. “I even believe I know when it’s going to be. I believe it’s going to be mid-January in California [at UFC 311].”

A Pereira-Aspinall matchup wouldn’t be completely out of the blue, as the suggestion has been brought up to the fighters in the past, though both have also expressed a desire to fight Jones, arguably the greatest MMA fighter of all time. Most recently, Jones stated that should he defeat Miocic, he’d consider fighting Pereira next.

There’s also the consideration that Pereira, the reigning light heavyweight champion, has a No. 1 contender waiting for him in his division in Magomed Ankalaev. However, with the UFC not committing to that matchup yet, Pereira—also a former champion at 185 pounds—remains free to vie for a third title should he make the jump up to heavyweight.

Once the UFC 309 headliner has his hand raised, who does Sonnen see the cameras going to first with Pereira and Aspinall both expected to be in attendance at Madison Square Garden?

“I do believe there’s going to be a panning to both of those guys,” Sonnen said. “I believe there’s going to be a conversation, but not because they’re next for the winner of Jones-Stipe. I think they’re going to find a way to get those two together and the winner will take on Jones or Stipe. That is purely a rumor, but I’m just offering it.

“I’m also hearing that Pereira’s hand isn’t going to be quite ready by December but could be by January and, again, you remove Ankalaev but you insert Aspinall, I just think there’s some legs to that. Now, there has to be certain outcomes. Stipe comes in, he wins this, everything we just said is up in smoke, but I’ve never seen Dana White play checkers. I’ve always seen Dana White be two and three steps ahead and I’m telling you, I believe the direction they’re looking to go if everything works out: Aspinall-Pereira.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Shots Fired
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