Midnight Roundup! Khamzat Chimaev goes hunting, Laura Sanko's "thirst trap", strongman KO'd UFC-style, and more

Modified Jan 15, 2024 05:50 GMT

Laura Sanko; Khamzat Chimaev — Laura Sanko (left), Khamzat Chimaev (right) [Image Credits: @laura_sanko via Instagram, @KChimaev via Twitter]

With the first UFC event of the year behind us, now we have 350 more days of fighting ahead of us and all the drama that comes with it.

From Laura Sanko's immense resilience to cold to Khamzat Chimaev's bizarre manner of trash-talking, here are the quirkiest news updates from the world of MMA presented by Sportskeeda's Midnight Roundup.

Khamzat Chimaev hunts a bunny

Khamzat Chimaev recently posted a picture on X with an AR rifle in one hand and a possibly dead rabbit in the other, suggesting that he hunted the animal down. He captioned the picture "Dipilsi", from which fans were quick to deduce he was sending a warning to Dricus du Plessis.

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It is completely understandable why Chimaev would want to talk trash to the current UFC middleweight challenger, set to fight for the belt against Sean Strickland at UFC 297. However, fans were more concerned with him hurting an animal and, even more so, using an automatic rifle to do it instead of a regular hunting rifle.

Laura Sanko posts a "thirst trap"

Laura Sanko is one brave woman.

In a recent Instagram post, she shared what she calls a "quarterly thirst trap" dressed in a two-piece, boots, and a beanie on her head. But behind her, you can see a blizzard going on in full force, which makes her choice of clothing a courageous one.

The UFC commentator explains in the caption that she is stuck in a snowstorm in Colorado. She said in the video:

"It's freaking freezing here. We can't leave for the next two days."

Take a look below:

Eddie Hall gets knocked out in sparring

It's hard to imagine a man who weighs 400-something pounds getting knocked out in combat, isn't it? But MMA does not work like that. As goes the lore, with technique and precision, any man can be taken down, any man can be beaten.

One of the most renowned Strongmen in the world, Eddie Hall, recently found that out. In what seems to be a light sparring session ahead of his MMA debut, Hall was quickly knocked out with a well-aimed head kick.

As he captioned the post, he 'f***ed around and found out.'

Credit to him, he managed to take it on the chin and give credit where it is due.

Fans, however, made quite a bit of fun of him on X under a post of the same video shared by @HappyPunch.

Here's one.

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Here's another.

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Khabib Nurmagomedov spotted with Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Khabib Nurmagomedov, an avid soccer fan, was recently captured with Swedish former soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic at a Serie A match. He attended the AC Milan vs. Roma game that took place on Sunday, Jan. 14.

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AC Milan is one of the clubs Ibrahimovic played for in his long career.

Bradley Martyn gets taken down... somewhat

In another instance where a well-built, muscular man found out that body size isn't everything, Bradley Martyn got taken down by a man significantly smaller than him.

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The YouTuber has been making headlines recently for claiming he can take on UFC fighters in a street fight, especially a flyweight like Demetrious Johnson, who is arguably one of the best to compete in MMA. Fans made sure to remind him of that after the latest video surfaced.

Next UFC location... diarrhea?

UFC recently shared a brief clip announcing that the promotion is coming to India.

"India, it's time," the video said, while the caption read:

"India, it’s time! A new chapter for Indian MMA begins right here, right now!"

While some fans were happy about UFC's expanding further in Asia, others made fun of the fact that the fighters will have trouble with the infamous Delhi belly.