Midnight Mania! Rousey Shuts Down Retirement Rumors

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

The retirement of Amanda Nunes changed the women’s MMA field drastically. Suddenly, all of her defeated foes had new life! The veterans of the Bantamweight division saw new opportunity, while the remnants of the Featherweight division braced for the likely dissolution.

An unexpected possibility in the return of Ronda Rousey as well! Though Holly Holm is still around — she headlines this weekend opposite Mayra Bueno Silva at UFC Vegas 77 — “Lioness” heavy hands sent Rousey into retirement in the first round. Without the Brazilian reigning over two divisions, there was potential for gold in two divisions for the extremely popular former champion.

Rumors quickly built, spurred on further by fighter media comments throughout the week. Sadly, it’s time to dump a bucket of cold water on this unlikely story. MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani reports that “Rowdy” is not at all considering any return to the Octagon.

It’s far from a shock. Rousey has been active in the professional wrestling here, taking out the likes of Marshawn Lynch. Furthermore, the 36-year-old Olympian was already dealing with major injuries prior to her 2016 retirement.

Now that this hypothetical is over, we can get back to focusing on the real news, like the latest prop bets on the Elon Musk vs. Mark Zuckerberg super fight that’s definitely going to happen any day now.

Insomnia

Zhalgas Zhumagulov had one of the unluckiest UFC careers in recent memory.

I think, more than anything else, Israel Adesanya is guilty of doing the whole Michael Jordan thing, creating narratives and reasons to amp himself up. Seems exhausting, but it’s working for him!

Yup, this clip belongs in the column.

Alex Volkanovski made it look easy, but fighting Yair Rodriguez really is such a scary proposition. Good luck guessing what he’s going to do next!

Is TUF getting Mac back in shape?

Twitter is an insane place generally, and the MMA sphere there is no better.

I don’t want to stereotype, but Russian TUF seems to be going exactly how I would have predicted.

I have an additional explanation: Dan Hooker is made of iron.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

A fun collection of shins wrapping around heads:

Thanks, I hate it.

Go to any amateur MMA card, and there’s a fair chance you see at least one fastball-like right hand connect like this. 75% of fights will begin with one!

Random Land

At a minimum, this is a tie.

Midnight Music: Hip-hop, 1993

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