Welcome to Midnight Mania!
Let’s start the night off by taking a look back over the three biggest stories of Friday, Sept. 5, 2025.
- Topuria’s next fight announced, returns against ‘Turan Warrior’ at UFC Qatar: How do we feel about the potential of Aleksandre Topuria? He looked like a possible Top 10 fighter to me in his debut.
- Street Fighter release date set, Alexander Volkanovski featured on first official poster : It’s a banner 12 months for MMA fighters looking to get into film.
- Fans react to shocking Mike Tyson vs. Floyd Mayweather spectacle: ‘No one asked for this’: We truly live in one of the most disappointing timelines … at least it’s not Logan Paul vs. Tyson?
Insomnia
Bryan Battle may have been planning a UFC comeback, but that PFL money is hard to turn down!
Petr Yan has settled into being a composed
veteran fighter and former champion, but I think we can eventually expect his son to bring that menacing “No Mercy” energy that saw Yan rise up the ranks to gold.
It sure looks like Charles Oliveira intends to wrestle vs. Rafael Fiziev at UFC Rio, which reads like a wise decision given the Topuria KO.
Happy anniversary to the Poiriers!
The best part of watching The Smashing Machine will be all the fighter cameos. El Guapo!
UFC Bantamweight champions historically do not have a good relationship with shoulders.
I don’t think there’s much interest in a Josh Thomson vs. Tony Ferguson rematch all these years later, but maybe I’m wrong?
Slips, rips, and KO clips
Some of y’all don’t remember how good a young, scrappy Luke Rockhold was back in Strikeforce, and that’s a shame — I had intended to post a highlight clip of Jacare vs. Rockhold below, but it refused to embed, so here’s the whole fight!
Swang-and-banging is best punctuated by a head kick.
Does Paul Craig have one last miracle submission in him?
Random Land
I would imagine slowing down might be difficult.
Midnight Music: Post-rock, 2000
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.
