Midnight Mania: Oliveira Vs. Tsarukyan? ‘Big News Coming’

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Nobody can be too confident in the future of the Lightweight belt.

Islam Makhachev has a strong grip on the title, that much is certain, but who will be next to try to pry it from him after a pair of challenges from Alexander Volkanovski? As Makhachev has been beating back the Aussie, the Lightweight division has been building deserving contenders. Charles Oliveira, Justin Gaethje, Arman Tsarukyan — three top-ranked and incredibly talented Lightweights coming off vicious knockout wins! “Do Bronx” was supposed to rematch Makhachev in October, but a nasty cut delayed that whole process.

The question remains: who is Makhachev fighting next?

Fight fans online have a theory. Ever vigilant online, fans noticed that both Oliveira and Tsarukyan are simultaneously posting about a return to action. Of particular interest is Arman Tsarukyan’s caption, which reads, “Big news is coming.” It also happens to be on the same day as when Gaethje is tweeting about Oliveira missing his opportunity and how he’s next-in-line …

Fans on Twitter are already predicting the unannounced and unconfirmed match up of Top Five-ranked Lightweights.

Worried for Charles but I think he’d win

Oliveira wins this easily, he beats Arman everywhere

Oliveira fighting all the contenders Makachev should be

I genuinely think Arman beats him and I know I’ll get cooked for having that take

Oliveria will hurt arman on feet by kick followed by punches and when arman hurt, oliveria will catch submission,I predict round 2 finish by Oliveria, Arman should be able to beat oliveria but I think bright lights and less experience will overwhelm arman

It’ll probably be Arman vs. Oliveira next. Dustin or Gaethje are not fighting Arman so it makes sense.

Again, the match up is currently unofficial (despite a handful of random accounts claiming otherwise without any source). With Makhachev expressing interest in facing a new opponent, however, it does make plenty of sense, and UFC 300 still needs some serious star power if it’s going to live up to the hype.

Insomnia

Hot take alert: pineapple, pepperoni, and jalapeños is an elite pizza topping combo.

In before Paulo Costa pulls out of his fighter versus Robert Whittaker for “tax reasons.”

Sean O’Malley was quite a gentleman in this sparring session.

Speaking of “Suga,” here’s Aljamain Sterling elaborating further on last night’s story:

Dan Hooker fires back at Islam Makhachev and company …

This is very juvenile, but then, that’s the door Colby Covington’s dumb trash talk opens, is it not?

An important fact I was unaware of.

This is one of those fight bookings I could have swore already happened.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

If it works once, it’ll probably work twice. If it works twice, it’ll probably work four times, right?

Reminder: Albert Tumenov was cut off a loss to LEON EDWARDS! “Einstein” has always been really good.

Punch-kick is the classic, but kicking into the 1-2 can work wonderfully also.

Random Land

Today, I learned wild yaks are scary.

Midnight Music: I am shocked to report that T-Pain’s new live album is incredible. Who knew the king of autotune could sing with such soul?!?

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