Welcome to Midnight Mania!
Let’s start the night off by taking look back over the three biggest stories of Tuesday, May 6, 2025.
Bo Nickal’s coach gives an honest assessment of UFC Des Moines: Mike Brown is one of the best in the business, and if he’s in charge of Nickal’s progression, the sky remains the limit (even if a step back or two is necessary).
Brendan Schaub says Bo must forget about striking, double down on wrestling: It will genuinely be very interesting to see how Nickal adapts moving forward, but playing to one’s strengths is rarely a bad idea in MMA.
UFC 315 isn’t selling very well: There are no stars on the card, and the top two fights have strong odds of being boring. Why would it sell well?
Insomnia
Kamaru Usman has already given his side of the beef, and now Belal Muhammad explains his point of view. Realistically, this would’ve been a very cool match up two years ago, but now? Pass.
Belal Muhammad explains what happened between him and Kamaru Usman on the podcast:
“He was like ‘anything you do I do better than you’. And then I was like ‘but you didn’t take the head kick better than me’.
And I think that just triggered him. He was like ‘I don’t play these… pic.twitter.com/osX5ztIFJg
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) May 6, 2025
Petr Yan vs. Sean O’Malley 2 will probably never happen, but it really should!
Petr thinks UFC gave a present to Omalley as the second title fight after losses:
“Everybody knows UFC gave a present to O’Malley a second time. When I was fighting O’Malley, I beat him. UFC gave him a present there, and now they gave him a title fight. He’s a chicken — a guy… pic.twitter.com/WgFzzUU4pF
— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA) May 6, 2025
Three absolute legends in combat sports:
When combat sports come together
Former undisputed light-heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev with UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev and two-time wrestling Olympic gold medalist Abdulrashid Sadulaev. pic.twitter.com/ERGaXuzb3o
— Ring Magazine (@ringmagazine) May 6, 2025
An update on Ilia Topuria’s move to 155-pounds. The former champ looks strong!
Cory Sandhagen weighs in on why he’s not particularly sympathetic to Bo Nickal’s loss at UFC Des Moines.
“I don’t ever feel bad for guys that make big claims and then get shit on from the internet because that’s the gamble that you’re taking. Bo Nickal is still a badass fighter, but that fight just kind of showed that he’s still really green, which is ok.
The problem is that Bo was… pic.twitter.com/TTpbNkzKwz
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) May 5, 2025
One of these Welterweights is going to sleep, no doubt about it.
In case anyone missed the RIZIN madness over the weekend:
Slips, rips, and KO clips
Blue shorts’ forearms had to be destroyed the next day.
There was a bit of a funky angle on this lead leg high kick, a smidge of a question mark to how it was thrown.
I am fully convinced by this seven-second clip alone that this man is experienced with his Muay Thai.
Random Land
There’s no way you can predict how this whole altercation goes down.
Midnight Music: Folk, 2005
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.
