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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Max Holloway is still riding high after his all-time great knockout win over Justin Gaethje (watch it) at UFC 300 a couple weeks ago. The “Blessed” Hawaiian scored a BMF title thanks to the victory, but he also lined himself up for another shot at Featherweight gold opposite current champion Ilia Topuria.

The fight itself will go down in history as a masterclass performance, as Holloway touched up Gaethje in every round prior to the buzzer-beater knockout. However, that’s not to say Gaethje didn’t also find his own success. “The Highlight” landed quite a few heavy low kicks that bruised up Holloway’s lead leg, and he certainly landed some clubbing hooks upstairs too.

One such right hand caught Holloway upside the the hide and briefly sent him to the floor. Holloway bounced back up and fought back immediately, but it appeared to be the first knockdown against him in an already legendary career! Officially, however, it wasn’t deemed a knockdown, as the UFC statisticians are UFCStats.com do not recognize the exchange as a knockdown.

Even Holloway knows that’s bulls—t, however, and he admitted as much on the “JRE MMA Show”

“It didn’t count as a drop, which is crazy,” Holloway said (via MMA Junkie). “ESPN is posting and saying like in however many fights I’m with the UFC, I still didn’t get dropped. That’s some bulls—t. Give Justin that one. Like, I’ll take it, you know what I mean? But I wouldn’t be a man sitting here and telling you that he didn’t.”

“Bro, I don’t even remember getting hit with that punch,” Holloway continued. “And then I sat, and I came back up. I was like, ‘What the – what did he just hit me with?’ You know what I mean? I was like, ‘Holy s—t!’ I was like, ‘That was a good punch.’

“Then when I rewatched it, he hit me like right on the top of my dome. I was like, ‘Holy smack, brother. This guy smacks.’ I was fine as soon as I got up, but it was one of those like, ‘Boom.’ The legs just give out. Like, I was still there, even when I was standing, I was looking at him. But I don’t know how that didn’t count as a drop. I don’t know what they count as a drop.”

It’s a bit reminiscent of when Colby Covington became the first man to take down Kamaru Usman in their second fight … only for UFC statisticians to say it wasn’t a takedown! MMA isn’t boxing or wrestling, so the standards for a knockdown and takedown can be different from the base sports, but where’s the line?

Apparently, not even a decorated champion like Holloway is certain.

Insomnia

Does Conor McGregor only post sparring clips of him beating up dudes who don’t seem at the level to spar him? Yes. Still, nobody else moves quite like “Notorious!”

In his 34 professional fights, Tim Elliott has faced a who’s who of Flyweight history. If he says he’s injured and can’t fight, we should believe him.

Can Dominick Reyes return to the win column and get his career back on track?

Nope, I didn’t know that! It makes the Mark Hunt rant copypasta even funnier.

Congratulations to Paddy Pimblett and his family!

I always have time for a good footsweep.

Classic bare knuckle shenanigans.

Alexander Volkov “borrowed” a shopping cart for the bit — love it.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Jorge Masvidal was picking up top-notch wins all the way back in 2007.

Speaking of athletes with great wins in across a 20-year career:

Will you be tuning into RIZIN next week?

Random Land

Apologies for neglecting RL last night. Anyway, check out CalicoCutPants.com!

Midnight Music: Tonight, I checked out and enjoyed the recent folk-y, countryish album from Waxahatchee titled Tigers Blood.

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

Mike Perry will make his return to the bareknuckle boxing ring tomorrow night (Sat., April 27, 2024) at BKFC “KnuckleMania 4” live on pay-per-view (PPV) from inside Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, Calif., as “Platinum” takes on fellow UFC veteran Thiago Alves in an exciting — and extremely violent — main event.

Luckily, the bareknuckle carnage won’t stop there. The BKFC heavyweight title will be up for grabs as well, as current champion Mick Terrell meets Lorenzo Hunt in co-main event action. Also, former UFC heavyweight contender Ben Rothwell takes on Todd Duffee in a heavyweight clash rescheduled from a broken matchup back in December.

On Friday, all fighters took to the stage for official weigh ins for “KnuckleMania 4.” You can check out the LIVE video stream HERE and some of the final faceoffs from the top fighters below:

Mike Perry vs. Thiago Alves

Mick Terrell vs. Lorenzo Hunt

Ben Rothwell vs. Todd Duffee

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For the complete BKFC: “KnuckleMania 4” fight card and DAZN PPV lineup click here.

One of the biggest bareknuckle boxing cards of the year will unfold this weekend (Sat., April 27, 2024) when BKFC “KnuckleMania 4” airs live on pay-per-view (PPV) from inside Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, Calif., as violent brawler Mike Perry puts his undefeated Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) record on the line against fellow UFC veteran Thiago Alves in the main event.

Adding to the PPV card mix will be a heavyweight title fight between current BKFC champion Mick Terrill and former BKFC cruiserweight king Lorenzo Hunt. Not to mention an undercard clash between UFC heavyweight veterans Ben Rothwell and Todd Duffee, which was expected to go down this past December at BKFC 56 only to fall through at the last second.

Before Saturday’s massive “KnuckleMania 4” PPV card gets underway, fighters will step on the scales Friday for official weigh ins. Afterwards, some of the biggest names will come face-to-face for one final — and often overly tense — staredown.

The BKFC “KnuckleMania 4” official weigh ins stream will air LIVE and FREE in the above video player beginning at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT. Follow along as Mania provides streaming updates and final faceoffs.

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For the complete BKFC: “KnuckleMania 4” fight card and DAZN PPV lineup click here.

Conor McGregor’s long-awaited return to the Octagon is such a big deal that even Jose Aldo is rooting for “Notorious” to capture victory.

It was announced earlier this month that McGregor will finally step foot back inside of the Octagon at UFC 303 on June 29 from Las Vegas, Nevada. The former UFC double champion will be making his return against fellow lightweight contender Michael Chandler, although the fight is expected to take place at 170 pounds. It will be the first time McGregor is competing since suffered a nasty leg break at the hands of Dustin Poirier back at UFC 264 in July 2021.

Given McGregor’s popularity and ability to sell pay-per-views, his clash with Chandler at UFC 303 is expected to be the biggest fight of the year. It may not be the greatest card of 2024, but there’s a good chance McGregor’s comeback fight breaks UFC’s all-time gate record, especially since it’s going down on International Fight Week.

With just two months remaining before UFC 303 sets sail the anticipation has begun to grow. Fight fans, fellows UFC fighters, and even some of McGregor’s biggest rivals are counting the days before he returns to the brightest stage in combat sports. This includes Aldo, who is one of the biggest rivals in McGregor’s UFC career. The two have since buried the hatchet, which is why Aldo is pulling for “Notorious” in his comeback fight.

“I have great expectations for that fight,” Aldo recently told MMA Junkie. “And as I always say, I always root for the guys who I fought and the guys who have beaten me because, you know, that just proves that I lost to the best and I lost to champions.

“So I hope that he can go in there and be the Conor of old, and be aggressive, and go in there to finish the fight, and not leave it to the judges. But you know, I expect great things from that fight.”

McGregor, who has been busy breaking Hollywood records during his time off, has not competed professionally in almost three years. That is a serious red flag for anyone expecting the former UFC champion to return to old form at UFC 303, but if any fighter could pull off the impossible it would be “Mystic Mac.”

Fighters have to worry about many things during training camp and the week leading up to their fight, but fending off a crazed stalker should not be one of them. Just ask UFC women’s flyweight contender, Amanda Ribas, who found out the hard way at UFC Vegas 89 last month that “being a fan” can mean something totally different to someone else.

Ribas, who is one of the most popular female fighters on the UFC roster today, recently headlined UFC Vegas 89 this past March against former UFC women’s strawweight champion Rose Namajunas. It was Ribas’ return to flyweight and a big opportunity for her to capture a win over a former champion and push herself closer towards title contention. On paper, it was her biggest fight to date.

Unfortunately, Ribas had to deal with some outside distractions during fight week in Las Vegas. Unlike some fighters who might have bad beef with their opponent or struggle to make weight, Ribas was forced to handle her own personal stalker. One who pretended to be married to her and pretty much harassed her the entire week leading up to UFC Vegas 89.

“I don’t remember his name, but he was a bit of a crazy guy,” Ribas recently told Ag. Fight. “On the first day, I arrived at the hotel — usually the fans are there for us to sign something, take a picture — but this citizen was a little crazy. He kept screaming, ‘Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.’ That same day, the guy at the front desk called my room and said, ‘Amanda, Alex is here wanting to go upstairs.’ Except that Alex is the name of my manager. I said, ‘Hey, the sensei is here now’. He went and said a crazy last name, I said, ‘I don’t know.’ I thought that was kind of weird.

“The next day, when we arrived again at the reception, the young man was waiting. But he said he wanted to talk to me, and I said I couldn’t at the moment. He spoke to my father, handed him a letter, a bracelet and a teddy bear. So far, so normal, because it’s something that happens. I even like it, I love to get gifts. Then I read in the letter that he was in love with me as a man since 2020, that he met me in Abu Dhabi. We went to do some research. This young man, on his social network, it was written that I was his wife, that he lived in such and such a country and was going to move to [my hometown] Varginha [Minas Gerais, Brazil]. There was a picture of a teddy bear, everyone in my family, saying, ‘This is Marcelo, this is Arthur, this is Mirelly, this is Amanda, my wife’. I had some crazy business.”

The fight week weirdness did not stop there. According to Ribas, her stalker even managed to sneak his way past security and get into the UFC Performance Institute. Once again, he started telling people that Ribas was his wife. This eventually made its way to Ribas’ manager, Alex Davis, who informed UFC and was able to get security to shadow Ribas for 24 hours a day.

“The other day, this citizen managed to get into the P.I., I don’t know how, and he was telling people that I was his wife,” Ribas laughed. “[My manager] Alex [Davis] found out about it first, then he told me. Then he notified the UFC and they left a security guard with me 24 hours a day to be even more protected. It seems that they found out that he is a fighter, and he couldn’t fight in an event because he had taken a sword (laughs).”

Ribas, 30, ended up losing her main event fight to Namajunas via unanimous decision. It’s not the way she wanted to start her 2024 campaign, but at least her fight week stalker has since disappeared.

“To finish this week that I started single, I went ‘dating,’ I got ‘engaged’ and ‘married,’ I ‘separated,’ too,” joked Ribas. “Because they researched and saw that he had posted on his social networks that he is traveling to another city, that we were separated, but that he wished me all the luck in the world (laughs). It was the most unexpected ‘relationship’ I’ve ever had.”