Welcome to Midnight Mania!
Let’s start the night off by taking look back over the three biggest stories of Friday, April 25, 2025.
Ian Heinisch has some of the wildest stories of any UFC fighter ever: Click on the post and listen to the man tell his tale if you haven’t already.
Anthony Smith didn’t know Zhang Mingyang prior to signing the fight contract: Usually, I feel like this line of thought is promotional nonsense and an opportunity to big dog one’s opponent. In this case, however, I fully believe “Lionheart” didn’t know the random Chinese prospect with two UFC undercard wins to his name.
Dustin Poirier vs. Max Holloway 3 headlines UFC NOLA: It’s not the retirement fight I’d have picked for “The Diamond,” but I could watch this duo compete 100 times with nary a complaint.
Insomnia
Carlos Prates is officially the most badass nerd of all time.
Joaquin Buckley worked hard to secure his high-profile shot at Kamaru Usman, and “New Mansa” came ready to promote and make the most of it!
Belal Muhammad has never had trouble with motivation or consistency, but I have to imagine representing Palestine in recent years has given him an extra reason to push.
UFC Welterweight Champion Belal Muhammad speaks about Palestine ahead of his first title defense at UFC 315 with Damon Martin, MMA Fighting pic.twitter.com/WBdFFqIX2B
— faryal mk | فريال (@faryalmohammed) April 25, 2025
Is leaning into celebrity MMA the path to getting people to watch PFL?
This looks like standard MMA weight cutting to me, but doing so with a rehydration clause is really unhealthy.
I’ll never forget this sequence from the Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes rematch. Aldo’s hips are the all-time greatest, no discussion.
Team DDP doesn’t think much of Alex Pereira.
DDP’s Coach Went Off on Alex Pereira in Recent Remarks
“Look how bad he [Alex Pereira] looked in his last fight. Ankalaev just outplayed him. A lot of people say it was a boring fight — I say it was a brilliant fight. The game plan of Ankalaev and team was absolutely superb.… pic.twitter.com/mecjQoJttF
— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA) April 25, 2025
Slips, rips, and KO clips
Edilov stepped back into the counter hook with a serious quickness, totally caught his opponent off-guard.
Absolutely instant pain when the heel crashes into the liver:
Hurt along the fence is a bad place to be.
Random Land
Horrifying, unsettling, unpleasant.
Midnight Music: Soul, 1968
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.
