Welcome to Midnight Mania!
Let’s start the night off by taking a look back over the three biggest stories of Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025.
- UFC star Brian Ortega left comatose by weight cut gone wrong — ‘We pay the price for our dreams’: With 100% of my being, I tell you there is absolutely no way Brian Ortega should have been allowed to fight at UFC Shanghai. The bout was possible entirely because UFC was acting as its own commission …
- UFC 320’s Merab Dvalishvili has no way to beat Cory Sandhagen: ‘I don’t get tired, I don’t get out-wrestled’: This reads like a quote that might be embarrassing later, but it’s in Sandhagen’s best interest to bring this mentality to the fight. He has to be aggressive!
- Simping Sean O’Malley declares UFC champ Ilia Topuria ‘greatest fighter to ever walk the earth’ — ‘Even over Jon Jones’: On one hand, Topuria is nowhere close in terms of accomplishments or longevity. On the other, have you seen him fight? I get it.
Insomnia
Dricus Du Plessis backs Alex Pereira for the upset over Magomed Ankalaev,
which is a little surprising given the fairly recent bad blood between “DDP” and Pereira. Do you think “Poatan” will be able to better avoid the clinch/fence in this rematch?
Mauricio Ruffy and Alexander Volkanovski feels like a mutually beneficially training partnership.
On one hand, Alexander Gustafsson has lost four straight and is 38 years old. At the same time, his boxing was always his best asset. Would watch?
Merab Dvalishvili will be one of a select few incredibly active champions if able to defeat Cory Sandhagen this weekend.
The latest health update from Ben Askren:
Here it is, the funniest MMA image of 2025:
Joe Pyfer simultaneously lumbers around with his feet stuck in the mud while also employing pretty cool tricks in the stand up — a very Middleweight combination of bad and good.
Slips, rips, and KO clips
I don’t care about the end result: throwing a spinning kick in jeans is an instant win in my book.
Referee showed absolutely zero urgency or interest in saving this man.
I firmly believe oblique kicks should continue to be legal, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy watching them finish fights.
Random Land
As the furthest thing from an expert on China or medical developments, I found this deeper dive into China’s new “bone glue” interesting.
Midnight Music: Indie, 1998
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.
