Welcome to Midnight Mania!
Social media influencers are 0-2 against ranked Middleweights in 2024.
Earlier this year, former champion Sean Strickland made headlines for bloodying Sneako in a UFC Performance Institute sparring session. In the video above, rising contender Khamzat Chimaev is following his lead. Chimaev takes on Russian YouTuber Litvan, whose goal was to survive a minute in the cage with “Borz.” Predictably, it didn’t go too well, and the influencer was left curled up in agony on the canvas in short fashion.
That’s all well and good, but … wasn’t Khamzat deathly ill just a few weeks ago? Fans were quick to question the timeline on social media, wondering why Khamzat was beating up YouTubers when he couldn’t meet Robert Whittaker in the Octagon. The unfortunate answer is that it’s tough to tell when exactly this was filmed, only that Litvan released a video hyping up the sparring session about two weeks ago.
One way or another, it’s bad optics.
Khamzat Chimaev’s career is in a strange place. “Borz” is clearly very talented, but after an electric start to his UFC career, his activity has fallen off a cliff. He’s fought just four times in the last four years and only once at Middleweight, which is a hard way to build momentum and lock down a 185-pound title shot. Something keeps going wrong at the last second, and now his career is stalling.
At least he’s healthy enough for Crypto scams.
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— MMA Latinoamérica (@ClubDeLasMMA) July 11, 2024
Any jiu-jitsu gym worth its salt should be teaching takedowns in addition to rolling on the floor.
Dustin Poirier is feeling sassy this week.
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— Mixed Martial Aus (@MixedMartialAus) July 10, 2024
