Midnight Mania! Horiguchi Withdraws From UFC Baku Return, Replaced By Kazakh Killer

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Let’s start the night off by taking look back over the three biggest stories of Monday, March 19, 2025.

Jon Jones blames UFC for lack of concrete fight news: ‘I told them my plans a long time ago’: I have to wonder if this is another Khabib situation, in which Dana White is trying to convince a retiring fighter to step back into the cage?
Full list of Khamzat Chimaev injuries, withdrawals ahead of UFC 319 title fight: Khamzat’s hype and momentum surviving THIS amount of injury and illness is genuinely impressive. 9/10 elite fighters would be forgotten about in similar situations!
Chaos in camp? UFC 317’s Ilia Topuria reportedly ditches coaches ahead of super rare ‘double champ’ chance: There’s something to be said for sticking with what got you to the dance in the first place.

UFC Baku card, so Tagir Ulanbekov will instead face Azat Maksum, the 15-1 Kazakh prospect who recently lost a “Fight of the Night” to Charles Johnson. At least it’s still a banger?

Jon Jones loves trolling the fanbase so much. Even if the general emotion is anger, “Bones” has people invested in his next fight … if it happens.

Jon Jones reveals his upcoming plan in a series of tweets:

Jones: “To continue to monetize on this amazing brand that I’ve created.”

Fan: “So are you fighting again or not?”

Jones: “Not a bad idea.” #UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/RN2qG2aYH7

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) May 19, 2025

Do you have a problem with Tim Welch’s tactic of coaching the opposing fighter? All’s fair in love and war in my book.

Merab Dvalishvili’s coach plans to talk to the referees, as Tim Welch distracts opponents by yelling at them.

“Tim’s a good coach, I like Tim personally. Do I think it’s stupid? Absolutely. I guess maybe they think it worked for the Aljo fight, so it’s something we’re gonna… pic.twitter.com/AoAZ7mcMWk

— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA) May 19, 2025

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— ACD MMA (@acdmma_) May 19, 2025

Heavyweight has never been the deepest division, but it didn’t used to be quite so dire.

13 years ago today, Daniel Cormier fought Josh Barnett in the finals of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. We didn’t know it at the time, but this might’ve been a part of a heavyweight golden era, at least relative to today.

Here are the heavyweight rankings at that time. pic.twitter.com/rox77cWmtC

— Luke Thomas ️‍♀️ (@lthomasnews) May 19, 2025

My wife’s family coerced me into going trail riding with them a few weeks ago, and I spent the whole trip mildly terrified I was going to shatter my collar bone. Be careful champ!

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— Beyond Kickboxing (@Beyond_Kick) May 18, 2025