The Brit Pack MMA Podcast

The UFC is looking to kick off 2021 with a bang, as they get set to launch into a series of three events in just eight days on “UFC Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi. But the intrigue doesn’t start and finish with the action inside the octagon. On this week’s episode, we look ahead to the fights that matter on the UFC’s first fight card of the year, with former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway tak...

Yes, that’s right. After our special 2020 awards show last week, we’re kicking off the start of the new year with our MMA hot takes and predictions ahead of a (hopefully) packed year of fights in 2021. Taking our inspiration from our pre-fight eatery of choice, the legendary Nando’s, we’ve put together our personal list of way-too-early predictions, one for each level of the famous Nando’s Peri-Om...

It’s been a hell of a year. For the most part, it’s sucked, but the one release we all had was sport, and no sport responded better to the challenge of COVID-19 than MMA. Led by the UFC who, after a false start in California, held successful events in Jacksonville before establishing a secure COVID-safe bubble at the UFC Apex and heading to “UFC Fight Island,” where the Abu Dhabi government teamed...

The final UFC show of 2020 served up plenty of talking points, but despite a fun main card at the UFC Apex, the biggest topic of intrigue came from the night’s featured preliminary card fight. Former UFC lightweight champion Anthony “Showtime” Pettis defeated Alex Morono to finish his year with back-to-back wins, and round out his current UFC contract in solid form. He’s now a free agent and is li...

The final UFC pay-per-view of 2020 may just have produced the fight of the year. Deiveson Figueiredo’s majority draw with Brandon Moreno at UFC 256 was an instant classic, and a fight that immediately registered as a late entry in the “Fight of the Year” debate. On this week’s show, we recap the action from the remarkable main event at the UFC Apex. But UFC 256 wasn’t all about one event. The enti...

After a quiet couple of weeks, the combat sports world has picked up steam again in a big way, with major headlines coming out of both MMA and boxing, and on this week’s show, we attempt to pick our way through it all. Firstly, there’s the topic of Yoel Romero’s departure from the UFC. Sure, he’s knocking on a bit (but still younger than Simon…) but he’s still one of the world’s premier 185-pounde...

We’re not going to lie, it’s been a pretty quiet week in the sport of MMA. COVID deprive us of not one, but two UFC main events, and the fight card last weekend and the one coming up this week aren’t the most star-studded of affairs. But that didn’t mean that the combat sports world wasn’t buzzing, because it absolutely was – and it was all down to a couple of fiftysomething former world champions...

The 125ers took centre stage at the UFC Apex as UFC flyweight champions Deiveson Figueiredo and Valentina Shevchenko both defended their titles at UFC 255. Figueiredo showed once again his ability to finish a fight in an instant, while Shevchenko was forced to work a lot harder than many anticipated as she returned from injury to continue her reign. On this week’s show, we take a look back at both...

After a typically busy week in the world of MMA, the sport turns up the pace this week with a host of events to keep even the most hardened of hardcore MMA fans happy, and on this week’s episode of “The Brit Pack,” we take a look at what’s on offer. First, we recap the key action from last week, as Rafael dos Anjos marked his return to the UFC lightweight division with an impressive win, while two...

By the time you read this, we’re sure you’ll have heard the news that Paul Felder has stepped in to save the show at UFC Vegas 14 by swapping commentary duties for a spot in the main event against Rafael dos Anjos after Islam Makhachev was forced out of the fight due to a staph infection. That news dropped as we were recording this week’s episode of the show, and gave us a big talking point in an...

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for major MMA retirements, with Khabib Nurmagomedov announcing his departure at UFC 254 , and Anderson Silva tearfully bidding farewell to the UFC octagon this weekend. But retirements aren’t always as straightforward as they seem. For Silva, his defeat to Uriah Hall at UFC Vegas 12 may have been the last time we’ll see him inside the octagon, but the Brazilian leg...

In another bonus episode of “The Brit Pack,” Simon hopped on the phone with one of the British contingent on the Bellator MMA roster as he caught up with featherweight Saul Rogers following his victory in the co-main event of Bellator Europe 10 in Paris, France. Rogers chats about his experience of a crazy fight week in France, as he was left completely on his own after his cornermen were sent hom...

“The Brit Pack” is back to recap the historic events of UFC 254, as Khabib Nurmagomedov announced his retirement to bring down the curtain on the UFC lightweight champion’s undefeated career. We take a look at Nurmagomedov’s win over Justin Gaethje in the main event in Abu Dhabi, and discuss the Russian superstar’s legacy following his decision to retire from the octagon. We also get excited over...

UFC 254 was always going to produce big headlines, but not too many people saw this one coming. Khabib Nurmagomedov has retired from the sport of MMA. The Russian UFC lightweight champion retained his title with a second-round triangle choke submission of Justin Gaethje in the main event on Fight Island, then surprised the world by revealing his decision to retire with immediate effect. Many of us...

The biggest title fight of 2020 is finally here, and “The Brit Pack” is here to break it down for you. Khabib Nurmagomedov will put his UFC lightweight title – and his undisputed record – on the line in the main event in Abu Dhabi when he takes on interim champion Justin Gaethje, who is coming into the fight in the form of his life after his brilliant stoppage of Tony Ferguson earlier this year. I...

The title of this week’s show pretty much says it all. Yes, we had a ton of fights over the past seven days, but the thing the whole MMA world was buzzing about after the weekend was THAT knockout by Joaquin Buckley on UFC Fight Island on Saturday night. You haven’t seen it? Check it out and be amazed… Recency bias always kicks in when people see amazing knockouts like this, and it has already bee...

The fight calendar rolls on, and two of the UFC’s biggest rivalries continue to generate heat away from the octagon as we look back on another busy week in MMA. On “UFC Fight Island,” former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm and former UFC women’s featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie picked up big wins as they look to earn themselves a shot at all-conquering two-division women’s...

To say the last week was busy would be a huge understatement, and on this week’s show we attempt to unpack all of it as we look back on jam-packed seven days in MMA. For starters, we had a staggering SIX events to look back on, with Cage Warriors’ “Trilogy” of events in Manchester, plus Bellator’s return to action in Milan, Italy. Of course, there was UFC 253 as the octagon reopened for business o...

A bumper edition of '“The Brit Pack” features plenty of pre- and post-fight chat as we preview UFC 253 and review UFC Vegas 11, and we also zero in on two key talking points around the two shows. Last weekend in Vegas, Colby Covington bounced back with a fifth-round finish of Tyron Woodley, but despite once again proving himself to be one of the very best fighters on the planet, his divisive rheto...

As the title of this week’s show suggests, we had a ton to discuss on this week’s episode of “The Brit Pack” as we picked through the results of a triple-header weekend, looked ahead to a stacked card this weekend, and chatted about some of the big MMA storylines of the week. We had UFC on ESPN+ 35 in Vegas, where Michelle Waterson and Angela Hill served up a classic, and referee Chris Tognoni’s e...

According to his manager, Nick Diaz is on his way back, and even though it’s been more than five years since his last fight, the MMA world is excited at the prospect of his potential return. On this week’s show, we take a look at the potential options for a returning Diaz as he plans his comeback in early-2021. Who should he face when he steps back inside the octagon? We look at the permutations....

As the title of this week’s show suggests, heavyweight discussion dominates the chat on the latest episode of “The Brit Pack” as we react to the breaking news of Brock Lesnar entering free agency. Could he really make a return to MMA? And would he actually be better off joining Bellator instead of the UFC? It sounds mad, but hear us out! We also chat about Daniel Cormier’s legacy after “DC” confir...

Former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar made a victorious debut at 135 pounds as he edged out Brazilian contender Pedro Munhoz (some say controversially) in the main event of UFC Vegas 7 last weekend. It means there’s yet another contender in the UFC’s absolutely stacked bantamweight division. But where does “The Answer” slot into things in the UFC’s 135-pound shark tank? That’s just one of...

UFC 252 promised an epic trilogy fight between Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier, and it didn’t disappoint as the pair settled their rivalry at the UFC Apex. On this week’s episode of “The Brit Pack,” we take a look back at the events of last weekend, when Miocic defeated Cormier to retain his UFC heavyweight title and claim the “win” in the three-fight series between the pair. What did the win do f...

We say it every week, but boy do we have a packed show for you! Of course, the majority of this week’s episode of “The Brit Pack” is dedicated to the huge trilogy fight between Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormer, who dance one final time for all the marbles – and possibly the mantle of the greatest MMA heavyweight of all time – in the main event of UFC 252 this weekend. But that’s only part of what we...