Welcome to Midnight Mania!
Let’s start the night off by taking look back over the three biggest stories of Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
Ilia Topuria is getting his title shot: I have to imagine the rumored injuries to Dricus Du Plessis and Sean O’Malley greatly improved Topuria’s position, and likely the payout for Islam Makhachev as well.
BJ Penn sees dead people: Everything Penn posts is genuinely distressing at this point of the game. It’s hard not to see his story ending in disaster unless he finds professional help.
Paddy Pimblett is fat again, nobody is impressed: I’m going to defend Pimblett a little here. Of the infamous 40 pounds, Pimblett put back probably 20 pounds on by fight night in healthy fashion. He likely gained five-to-ten from the milkshakes and trash food, and then the rest of that weight is water retention from eating too much salt. Just a few days of healthy food, and his face looks less puffy, and he’s back down to probably 185 pounds — manageable.
Insomnia
In the immortal words of Grand Theft Auto’s CJ, “Ahhh s—t, here we go again.” I’m still convinced there’s something to my theory that Michael Chandler is now performing badly enough (unintentionally, to be clear) to draw Conor McGregor back into the game.
This is the worst retirement plan I’ve ever heard. Anthony Smith should accept his future as a real estate agent, cop, or firefighter like everyone else!
European combat sports athletes are always committing more interesting crimes than our US stars.
Wow. Crazy stuff.
Remember covering Pietro back in the day. He was once signed to the UFC to fight Tim Elliott but got immediately cut after failing to make weight. https://t.co/qpfhnrl0cl
— Al Zullino (@phre) April 22, 2025
Featherweight banger alert! Melquizael Costa has really picked up momentum in 2025, and Julian Erosa is another great test for him.
It’s too easy to envision Yoel Romero effortlessly knee sliding across a slick airport tile floor and catching an old woman with ease. At least “Soldier of God” is using his powers for good!
UFC Facebook is an unhinged place.
Jiri Prochazka offers his training philosophy:
Jiri Prochazka giving the full explanation of why he likes to spend most of his training camps alone instead of in a gym ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/uMXVBKkkck
— FULL SEND MMA (@full_send_mma) April 21, 2025
Featherweight legends working in the gym:
Slips, rips, and KO clips
Chaos! Here I thought New Zealand was more civilized than this.
UFC fighter Dan Hooker hosting a boxing tournament in MMA gloves
Dan is definitely enjoying the fights
( : N1 HYPE FIGHTING) pic.twitter.com/nYsERTU1XL
— COMBAT SPORTS TODAY (@CSTodayNews) April 20, 2025
Speaking of Oceania, here’s an Aussie prospect to keep an eye on.
Top featherweight prospect George Mangos (7-0) will compete on Dana White’s Contender Series, sources confirm.
He might be the prospect I’m most excited about in all of MMA. His total destruction of the AUS/NZ scene at 21 years old has been something. pic.twitter.com/rju5z455nu
— Nolan King (@mma_kings) April 19, 2025
The referee really stood him back up just for a Mortal Kombat execution finish.
Random Land
A fun prompt … it’s really hard for me to say anything other that Innervisions here.
Midnight Music: Speaking of …
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.
