Midnight Mania: No Love 2.0?

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Ilia Topuria put on one of the year’s best performances when he smoked Alexander Volkanovski earlier this year, becoming UFC Featherweight king in emphatic fashion. Since then, however, there’s been a bit of Topuria backlash. The Spanish talent is quite in love with his own abilities, which is a frustrating quality when he remains unbooked against obvious contender Max Holloway.

Ultra confident and riding high himself, UFC Bantamweight kingpin Sean O’Malley can probably relate to Topuria more than most. However, “Suga” drew criticism recently for a complaint about the official pound-for-pound rankings, which currently have “El Matador” a spot above O’Malley.

On a recent episode of his podcast, O’Malley gave mixed messages about Topuria, wondering if he’ll be next to suffer a fall like Cody Garbrandt before ultimately complimenting his skills.

“I tweeted, ‘How the f—k is Ilia above me on the pound-for-pound? He’s five inches shorter and has less title defenses.’ Those are just facts, I wasn’t trying to be funny. I got a lot of hate for it … Buddy, I really could give a f—k less where I’m at on the pound-for-pound.

“Ilia is going to be the next Cody Garbrandt. He won his nice little fight, he had his little Dominick Cruz, but he’s about to get pieced up by Max Holloway and then go downhill from there. Not really, I feel like Ilia is one of the most skilled guys actually in the UFC. But f—k Ilia.”

Topuria and O’Malley have jawed at one another previously, so perhaps “Suga” is just continuing to angle for an eventual shot at double champion status. In the interim, both remain unbooked, though O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili and Topuria vs. Holloway are obvious match ups for both champions.

Insomnia

Fight Circus is the future of combat sports.

I definitely don’t want Alex Pereira to cross over into the boxing ring … but I’d watch it!

I appreciate this insight into Marc Goddard’s thought process.

Dricus Du Plessis seems like one of the UFC fighters less likely to get in a street fight over some nonsense trash talk.

Forget it Donny, you’re out of your element.

Nasty hematoma and general damage from low kicks:

Slips, rips, and KO clips

It really doesn’t get much more brutal than a fully loaded uppercut to a KO’d opponent.

Even ignoring the crazy context of it all, just the knockout punch itself — a switch lead hand uppercut — is wild.

Nasty combos, spinning kicks, and jump knees all from close quarters.

Random Land

You’ve seen mud wrestling, but how about mud boxing?

Midnight Music: Alternative, 1992

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