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Sidelined Shavkat refuses to waste energy on ‘intermediate fights,’ will wait for Welterweight title shot


Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Let’s start the night off by taking look back over the three biggest stories of Tuesday, July 8, 2025.

  1. Un-retired and not champion Jon Jones is happy to ‘be the hunter, not the hunted’ – ‘Feels nice’: Every Jon Jones quote is worse than the last. It has to be intentional. Nobody can be this irritating by accident, right?
  2. Pic: UFC Nashville’s Junior Tafa is completely transformed ahead of Light Heavyweight debut: It’ll be very interesting to see if Tafa is a better defensive grappler at 205-pounds. He’s certainly a nasty puncher!
  3. Mystified Max Holloway wants out of ‘ridiculous’ rankings ahead of UFC 318 — ‘What the hell is going on?’: The official UFC rankings leaving fighters in multiple divisions after they’ve left one is indeed a plague.

Insomnia

Shavkat Rakhmonov deserves his title shot, but also, the division is moving forward as his injury heals. Tough spot …

A pair of all-action Flyweight up-and-comers will throw down at Noche UFC! It’s good to see Edgar Chairez getting another highlight after putting on an absolute banger in the Sphere last year.

Charles Johnson is NOT impressed by Ramazan Temirov’s recent drug test failure or explanation for it.

I don’t feel like Sean O’Malley was too guilty of KO-hunting in either Merab fight, but I’m curious what adjustments he’ll make moving forward.

Arman Tsarukyan claims Ilia Topuria is a chronic weight misser … but not when it counts.

RIZIN posters are absolutely top-tier. I would hang this!

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Anyone who watched the golden days of Bellator remembers Alexander Shlemenko, a serious badass by any standard.

Fail a takedown, look at the ground, whip an overhand — works every time!

Danny Roberts has an unfortunate habit of getting knocked cold in unpleasant ways.

Random Land

Happy Gilmore vibes.

Midnight Music: Post-punk, 1989

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




This story originally appeared on MMA Mania

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