Welcome to Midnight Mania!
Let’s start the night off by taking look back over the three biggest stories of Tuesday, July 1, 2025.
- Power-punching ‘Robocop’ who nearly killed middleweight ‘Joker’ shrugs off backlash from UFC 317 — ‘I don’t care’: After Jalin Turner vs. Renato Moicano (the most recent of many examples), nobody should be mad about a fighter following up on the knockout. Be angry at Herb Dean for being 15 yards away!
- Chatty Islam won’t acknowledge UFC 317 win for Ilia Topuria, but coach expects ‘problems’ against Arman, Gaethje: Ali Abdelaziz must have been in the bathroom during the UFC 317 main event.
- New No. 1 Flyweight contender Joshua Van not surprised he beat Brandon Royval on short notice: ‘I don’t fight like these guys’: On one hand, Van was hugely impressive this weekend. At the same time, Royval is a very flawed for a top contender. Good match up or the future of Flyweight?
Insomnia
Grappling ace, promoter, and coach to the stars, Craig Jones, believes UFC is on the decline due to “boring ass wrestlers.” Don’t expect him to help after the CJI theft though …
Arman Tsarukyan better be careful talking trash with Dan Hooker. He’s just going to get roasted and end up in a fight that doesn’t help him!
If the UFC rankings went back another decade, who else would have scored the top spot? I have to assume Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre make the list at some point.
Ilia Topuria becomes only the 10th fighter in UFC history to claim the #1 spot on the men’s pound-for-pound rankings pic.twitter.com/kqd7bKTkJW
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) July 1, 2025
Jake Paul finds an unlikely ally in Ryan Garcia … how long till they box?
You can’t say Jake’s fights are rigged. It’s getting ridiculous. He’s just winning. May not be against the people you want or are qualified to give him a challenge but it’s just bc he’s popular. He has 11 pro fights. He’s on a similar path as most pros
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) June 30, 2025
Speaking of “The Problem Child,” I’ve been looking at combat sports social media for the last four days, and this is the FIRST highlight clip I’ve seen. Nobody cared about the Chavez Jr. fight!
Obvious Lightweight banger here, but can Elves Brener rebound after a couple tough defeats?
Payton Talott and Frank Ocean is my favorite weird happening in MMA right now. It makes Twitter nerds SO MAD!
Payton Talbott on his friendship with Frank Ocean:
“It was kind of strange, just unexpected at first. That’s like the last person I would have expected, but after meeting him, he’s just a normal person.
He’s a very special person and very gifted and just like brilliant, but I… pic.twitter.com/1AO0aAukeA
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 30, 2025
Slips, rips, and KO clips
I love the rare forehead-to-forehead MMA fight, and there’s still much development to be done in that realm.
Broken orbitals seem absolutely terrible, both in the moment and in the longterm afterward.
Big boy brutality in Oktagon:
Random Land
An incredible photo.
Bonus shot from my latest capture of the ISS transiting the sun: One of the captured frames sat right on the limb against these background prominences.
The ISS is so iconic, I’m going to miss it when it’s gone. pic.twitter.com/2NhiB6n0fw
— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) June 30, 2025
Midnight Music: Zamrock, 1973
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
