Midnight Mania! Khabib Nurmagomedov, Heartbreaker

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Julianna Pena scored one of the biggest upsets of all time — let alone in a title fight — when she toppled two-division champ Amanda Nunes at UFC 269 in December 2021. However, not everyone is fully impressed.

At a recent Eagle FC press conference, Khabib Nurmagomedov was asked about the fight and women’s MMA … and he hasn’t changed his tune.

“I am like, we can watch what Julianna Peña did with Amanda Nunes [at UFC 269]. But Julianna Peña, she is not like the greatest or something like that,” Nurmagomedov said (via MMAnews). “She just beat Amanda Nunes like [on the day]. We can watch not many good [female] fighters all around the world. There are only like five or six of them.”

Understandably, Pena herself wasn’t exactly pleased with his analysis. A big fan of “The Eagle,” Pena explained on The Joe Rogan Experience how much the comment hurt her feelings.

“I saw in a presser that they asked [Khabib] a question and he was just completely downgrading the whole win and everything like that….it totally broke my heart…” Pena said. “I was like, ‘Dude, you’re breaking my heart, man. Like, I freaking love you. Like, seriously.

“He must be friends with Kayla Harrison or something. I don’t know. Because he was like, [MOCK KHABIB ACCENT] ‘If this is the top of women’s division, it’s a joke,” Peña said. “I mean, it wasn’t very nice. I didn’t appreciate it, Khabib.”

Ultimately, fighters can never impress everyone, though it’s extra painful when criticism comes from a highly respected peer. Still, Pena has a chance to impress once more in the eventual rematch, which may occur after a season of The Ultimate Fighter.

Insomnia

As far as I know, California is the only state remaining that releases fight pay information … but for how long?

This might seem a touch stupid in hindsight, but at the moment, Nick Diaz daring to do so against Anderson Silva — highly favored to knock him out — was badass.

Even prior to Francis Ngannou vs. Ciryl Gane, I thought this fight was a really interesting style match up. People still sleep on Curtis Blaydes too much!

A really sneaky high kick setup:

There’s nothing like a good press conference brawl!

Randy Couture is speaking from experience, and he doesn’t expect a positive end to the Ngannou vs. UFC drama.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Letting someone hang onto your neck for THIS long is generally a bad idea.

This man really baited his opponent into taking a bad shot and getting sprawled on. Genius!

Iminari rolls are sick when they work!

Random Land

Tangled up!

Midnight Music: Alternative RB&B, 2012

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