Midnight Mania! BJ Penn > Khabib, Death Of ‘La Leyenda,’ And ‘Robocop’ Vs. ‘Joker’

Friday, May 9, 2025 - 07:00

Penn v Guida
Photo by Buda Mendes/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

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

  1. Nicky Rod’s brother banned from Craig Jones’ B-Team for inappropriate interactions with women: Making AI porn of your female team mates (allegedly) is absolutely CRAZY work. We’re living in the future, and it’s a dark place.
  2. ‘It was me!’ — UFC champ claims responsibility for hacking Alex Pereira’s social media account: Magomed Ankalaev claims responsibility for the Alex Pereira “hack,” which I do not believe for a second is a real thing.
  3. ‘Pissed’ Jose Aldo is reinvigorated and mean, threatens entire division ahead of UFC 315 return: ‘They need to be worried’: I am begging UFC to book Jose Aldo in interesting match ups if he’s victorious this weekend. Aldo vs. Figgy or Cejudo would be such a banger!

Insomnia

It’s hard to deny Khabib when he almost never lost a round, but prime BJ Penn was an absolute force as well. I don’t consider this an unreasonable take, even if I would back “The Eagle” in a head-on match up during their respective primes.

If Kayla Harrison has more than five fights left in her at 135-pounds, I would be absolutely shocked. It’s clearly a miserable cut for her, and that’s going to show up in performance one way or another.

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A post shared by Kayla Harrison (@kaylaharrisonofficial)

Jack Della Maddalena nonchalantly dropping one of the meanest quips in recent memory tells me he would make for an interesting champion outside of the cage too.

“La Leyenda” is dead, long live “El Matador.”

Barring a quick KO, this will be a really good test of whether Gregory Rodrigues can manage his cardio against top talent.

A deep dive into the boxing counters of JDM:

UFC is making more money than ever for the least interesting quarter of fighting in recent memory. The question is whether that’s sustainable?

Meanwhile, PFL is actually heading to South Africa and probably losing money on the venture. Times are strange!

Slips, rips, and KO clips

It’s been three years since one of the reatest one round fights in MMA history.

This spinning back kick landed dead center of mass — OUCH!

Kadono uses a jab feint to draw out a counter that’s short, answers with a 1-2 same-side high kick of his own. Beautiful example of open stance striking and being first and third!

Random Land

The ocean floor is both fascinating and strange.

Midnight Music: Indie, 2020

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

Source: 
https://www.mmamania.com/2025/5/9/24426620/midnight-mania-bj-penn-khabib-death-of-la-leyenda-ilia-topuria-robocop-rodriues-joker-hermansson-ufc