Midnight Mania: ‘The Game Has Passed Him By’

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

UFC Welterweight champion, Belal Muhammad, doesn’t believe former interim champ, Colby Covington, has much left to offer after his one-sided stoppage loss to Joaquin Buckley last weekend (Sat., Dec. 14, 2024) in the main event of UFC Tampa.

Now, there’s no love lost between “Chaos” and Muhammad, who have traded barbs online on several occasions. While Muhammad admits to taking joy in watching a rival beat bloody, “Remember The Name” also works as a UFC analyst and has long term interests in how the top-tier of the division develops. According to Muhammad, Covington is now in a very weak position because holes in his game have been revealed.

”It felt so good just to watch him bleed and suffer,” Muhammad told MMA on SiriusXM (via MMAJunkie). I was just hoping that the doctor would let it go a little bit more because now you open the door for Colby to make excuses. He’s already coming out with excuses. Bro, you’re literally getting pieced up in every way you can get pieced up. You were losing the grappling, you were losing the striking, you were losing the kickboxing, you even lost the walkout because you ripped your shirt before you even got out there, so you looked stupid doing that.

“Once people realize he’s not what people thought he was – they put him on this pedestal of, ‘Oh, man, he’s the cardio king. He’s this, he’s that.’ These new guys now, where we’re studying, we’re seeing stuff. He’s not throwing anything at you to make you worry. He can throw his pity patty freaking punches, and then he takes his stupid shot and pushes to the fence and tries to take you down. But there are better athletes now, there are better guys, smarter guys now that are seeing all this stuff.”

A big question in the immediate UFC Tampa aftermath was what’s next for Covington? Does he have what it takes to rebuild his position as a contender at 36 years of age? Muhammad doesn’t believe so, and he doesn’t expect Covington to remain in the Top 10 for long or win any important fights.

“I think now that one person realizes, wait, this kid really does suck, he doesn’t belong in the Top Five in the UFC,” Muhammad continued. “I don’t think he’ll beat anybody in the Top 10 in the UFC. Now he’s realized the game has passed him by, and he needs to figure out what’s next. Maybe he’ll have one big fight against somebody, maybe, but there’s not a lot left for him.”

Since the loss, Covington has been adamant that he was turning the tide against Buckley and still has a lot to offer in the Octagon. If not, perhaps WWE comes calling?

Insomnia

Ryan Spann is heading up to Heavyweight to face 5-1 Waldo Cortes Acosta. Good move?

I don’t think anyone is surprised to see the Russian fighters of ACA and the like do well when brought into the fold.

A bit wild to promote Igor Severino this way, is it not? Not that I’m offended by it, but is the Hannibal Lector mask an ideal way to rehabilitate his image?

Video games ruined at least one Khabib cousin.

Riyadh consistently kills the promo posters and videos game.

Gabriel Benitez didn’t have the most consistent UFC run, but he always put on great fights. Respect!

Are literally all of the best Bellator fighters heading for UFC? If so, was the name alone worth that much money? I can’t imagine so.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

A classic bit of Swang-n-Bang!

Watch this one … it’s spectacular!

Caught his opponent standing still at the start of a new round!

Random Land

Sensory overload.

Midnight Music: Alternative, 1994

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