Midnight Mania: Middleweight Khamzat = More Juice Than Tropicana!

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Despite his protests, it’s been the better part of a year since Khamzat Chimaev competed inside the Octagon. Last time out, he manhandled Kevin Holland at UFC 279, but the impressive win was largely made irrelevant by the disastrous weigh-in that saw him miss by nearly a full weight class.

Since then, it’s been uncertain which division Khamzat would return to. Thankfully, his future is now clear: he’s booked to fight against Paulo Costa at UFC 294, a Middleweight bout that could earn him a title shot with victory. Though Chimaev has fought at Middleweight in the UFC previously, he’s better known for his 170-pound accomplishments.

Now that Welterweight is in his rearview mirror, Chimaev can focus on bulking up. He recently shared a photo on Twitter, flexing to show his progress. “Borz” looks huge!

Naturally, fan reactions were varied. Several concluded that Khamzat would never return to Welterweight, and others speculated that he broke into Costa’s stash of “secret juice.” One fan put together a side-by-side of Chimaev’s physical transformation and wrote that Chimaev is on “more juice than Tropicana.”

Now, “Borz” does look beefy, but it’s important to note that the body can appear to change drastically depending on where a fighter is at during their weight, the lighting in the room, and a recently completed workout. Chimaev may not weight drastically more in the latter picture, even if he appears much larger.

Really, the real test will be in the cage against Paulo Costa, as well as on the scale the morning prior.

Insomnia

There were so many banger fight announcements today that this surefire scrap went under the radar!

Sean Strickland has been beefing with the Lee brothers all week, and it’s been very stupid. This seems to be the end though …

There haven’t been enough Derrick Lewis quotes this week.

A tale of delusion in two tweets! It’s bad when Brendan Schaub looks very reasonable in an interaction.

A ten second clip that aptly summarizes the chaotic and hilarious nature of Michel Pereira.

Jamie Mullarkey is going to get in John Makdessi’s face and give him the fight he wants, but will it work anyway?

Kamaru Usman is back to putting in roadwork. Maybe it helps his next performance?

Slips, rips, and KO clips

RIP to Lethwei champion Too Too.

Call an ambulance … but not for me!

EL CUCUY FOREVER!

Random Land

A neat timelapse.

Midnight Music: Electronic, 2007

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