Welcome to Midnight Mania!
Yoel Romero is a special fighter.
At 47 years of age, “Soldier of God” is no longer in his prime, even if he’s still a dangerous knockout artist. In his heyday, however, few could claim to move as suddenly as the Cuban Olympian. Romero would be smoothly sliding around the Octagon, biding his time and then all of a sudden, his opponent was crumpled in a heap. Though he never won the title, he came close on more than one occasion and developed a fearsome reputation in the process.
In short, Romero was a scary proposition for years and still is to some extent. In a recent appearance on Mike Perry’s OverDogs Podcast, Romero revealed that one of his iconic knockouts over Lyoto Machida resulted in serious damage to “The Dragon.”
“Lyoto was too worn out,” Romero began. “Let’s put it this way, after he fought me, he wasn’t the same. He suffered brutal damage. You know he was in a coma, right? He was in a coma, I was worried about him. I kept talking to his managers because he was in a coma. That’s why I respect any gladiator that does this, because your life is at risk bro.”
Currently, the exact details and length of Machida’s “coma” are unknown, but it’s understandable why the former champion would want to keep that information under wraps. After the Romero loss, Machida would compete nine more times as a professional, winning four of those bouts. He retired from MMA in 2022 after a knockout loss to Fabian Edwards in Bellator.
As for Romero, he’s still competing. He most recently scored a knockout win in the Dirty Boxing promotion and is currently a member of the Global Fight League roster.
Insomnia
We rarely see Dricus Du Plessis turn down a chance to verbally dunk on somebody, but his response here was quite respectful actually.
Jiri Prochazka back in his “gym.”
I didn’t realize this weekend will host the first-ever UFC women’s fight in Saudi Arabia, nor that the occasion demanded specific fight kits.
These are the fight kits that Mayra Bueno Silva and Jasmine Jasudavicius will wear in Saudi Arabia on Saturday (via Bueno Silva’s Instagram).
They are the first-ever female UFC fighters to compete in Saudi Arabia. pic.twitter.com/vEWv3jnp7i
— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) January 29, 2025
Shara Magomedov got to hang out with Cristiano Ronaldo.
Take this with a grain of salt …
Young Dagestani fighter Abdulaziz Datsilaev, who trains at Kill Cliff says that it’s known in the gym that former UFC champ Kamaru Usman is very arrogant, the opposite of Khabib Nurmagomedov. Although he became a bit friendlier after Leon and Khamzat Chimaev beat him. Watch pic.twitter.com/1JL3eh04wB
— PAM (@ParamPam1990) January 29, 2025
Interesting insight into the early days of Conor McGregor …
All over MMA social media, I see people labeling random training clips as hard sparring. THIS is hard sparring and fairly typical among Japanese kickboxers.
Slips, rips, and KO clips
Joseph Benavidez scored quite a few guillotine wins in his career, but this one still stands out as the best.
Marcelo Garcia will forever be my favorite grappler.
The familial left hook strikes again.
Random Land
A strong pup.
Midnight Music: Instrumental funk, 1969
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.
