Welcome to Midnight Mania!
Let’s start the night off by taking a look back over the three biggest stories of Christmas 2025.
- Ilia Topuria’s ex-wife reports threats and harassment from crazed fight fans following public split: Once again, this is lame behavior from chronically online weirdos posting about “our wife.”
- UFC fighter who launched discourse on World War 2 not ‘an inbred imbecile’ but admits his ‘intelligence has become a curse’: Bryce Mitchell is responsible for some wonderful Jesse Holland headlines this year.
- Another ex-UFC champion questions Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua legitimacy: ‘He’s playing with his food’: I offered my take in the post, so I’ll ask again: do you think Joshua carried Paul?
Insomnia
Conor McGregor spreading a bit of holiday cheer in a since-deleted tweet. Who else but the Mac?
Between his food content and grappling matches, Arman Tsarukyan is a busy man without fighting.
Good bit.
I never knew the comedy involved in Justin Gaethje vs. Dustin Poirier. Slow-mo reveals all!
Tyron Woodley losing every single fight since releasing “I’ll beat yo ass” is proof that the MMA Gods have a real sense of humor.
Daniel Cormier had the unfortunate luck of facing Cael Sanderson — greatest collegiate wrestler of all time — six separate times.
Anecdote of the week: Back during the COVID shutdown days, my relatively untrained wife and I would put on boxing gloves and light spar in the living room. She would also throw front kicks only to then get mad when I tucked my elbows in to protect my belly …
Slips, rips, and KO clips
Establish the straight punches then come around the guard:
Vadim Nemkov vs. Francis Ngannou would be such a great, must-watch PFL main event. Somehow, I expect that means PFL won’t make it happen.
Nobody saw this shot coming …
Random Land
End your holiday right with the vaguely incestuous Folgers commercial of Christmas infamy.
Midnight Music: Donny Hathaway was one of the greats.
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.
