The Co-Main Event MMA Podcast

For being one of MMA’s all-time most talked-about fighters, it sure feels like Conor McGregor is a big, fat unknown headed into his return fight Saturday at UFC 329 against Max Holloway. Don’t know if you’ve noticed but up until about a week ago, the storylines surrounding McGregor have been almost exclusively TERRIBLE … and also NOT about fighting. So, as he prepares to come back to the Octagon f...

Old guys seem to be having a renaissance in the UFC right now and, as gentlemen of a certain age, we frankly couldn’t be happier. Shout out to Mike “Bad To The” Bohn for pointing out this week that the older fighter has won the main event of every numbered UFC PLE so far this year (Volk and Gaethje, both 37; Chuckie Olives, 36; and Uhlberg and Strickland, both 35). That’s right, 2026 so far is the...

Breaking news, Mainiacs! Right before we started recording this episode, the UFC announced that its new artificial intelligence fighter rankings — developed in conjunction with Zuck and the smart kids at Meta — are out! Finally, the pesky whims of humanity will no longer hamper the UFC’s ability to rank fighters in each weight class from 1-15. Now, a computer will use “statistical modeling and mac...

I guess we gotta give a small amount of credit to the UFC for showing some uncharacteristic restraint during Donald Trump’s Big Birthday Bash at the White House. They actually kept the overt MAGA Mania to a minimum. They didn’t show D-Tiddy himself too much (though when they did, he sure seemed to be having a terrible time). They didn’t have anybody pop out of a cake to sing “Happy B-Day, Mr. Pres...

D-Tiddy’s Big Boy Birthday Bash faced an unexpected late-breaking hurdle early this week after a lawsuit was filed to try to keep the UFC’s White House spectacular from happening at all. Now, we don’t think that suit is going to go anywhere, but if it did, wouldn’t that just be some MMA shit? Think of the unbelievable disaster! Plus, unlike the UFC, we also get around to (sorta) talking about the...

The UFC is coming off a fairly anonymous Fight Night in Macau last weekend and is headed into a fairly anonymous Fight Night back at the Apex this weekend. And yet, we’re just two weeks away from the big White House spectacular, and the UFC also has Conor McGregor’s alleged return scheduled for later in the summer. Look, it’s no secret there has been some fairly vocal discontent among a significan...

Dana White’s everywhere right now. Time Magazine. Rolling Stone. NPR. The New Yorker. Wait, what? The New Yorker? Believe it. Leading up to the UFC’s Big Boy Birthday Bash at the White House, Dana’s on a media tour with the actual, legitimate mainstream media. Not surprisingly, he's spent a LOT of that time talking about himself and his very special relationship with ya boi D-Tiddy, and not much t...

Most Valuable Promotions put on its inaugural MMA event on Netflix last weekend. If we’re being honest, it was a lot. The mismatch-filled main card played out exactly according to chalk. Mike Perry beat Nate Diaz into a living death before their fight was stopped due to cuts. Big Fran KOed a puffed-up light heavyweight in Philipe Lins after a few minutes of toying with his food. And that much-ball...

He did it again, brother. This crazy MFer Sean Strickland once again went out there in a championship fight he had no business winning and walked away with the belt. This time, he took the UFC middleweight strap off the previously undefeated Khamzat Chimaev. Strickland needed a little help from Chimaev himself to pull it off, as the now former champ fought one of the weirdest title fights we’ve se...

We’re not totally sure how, but Sean Strickland plans to bring a gun to New Jersey for UFC 328. I mean, is he driving? Does he know a guy he can call when he lands in Newark who will meet him on a darkened street corner and hand him a suspiciously heavy-looking brown paper bag? Anyway, if he does manage to keep that thang on him in Brick City, he says he'll use it to shoot UFC middleweight champio...

A little less than a year ago, Jack Della Maddalena was riding high, fresh off scoring the UFC welterweight title from Belal Muhammad at UFC 315. Unfortunately, like they used to say in VH1’s Behind the Music: it was all about to come crashing down. After getting summarily handled by Islam Makhachev in his first title defense at UFC 322, Della Maddalena heads home to the Land of Oz this weekend fo...

They put on WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas over the weekend, and the reaction from at least some wrestling fans has been: “Fuck TKO.” As in, we mean they were actually, literally chanting “Fuck TKO” in the arena during the post-show. Yeah, it seems like the parent company of WWE and the UFC isn’t super popular with either fan base. And maybe they deserve that. Maybe they’re sucking all the life out...

Somehow, Carlos Ulberg won the UFC light heavyweight title on one goddamn leg. Not sure we’ve ever seen anything quite like that. It was an all-time great championship finish. Now, however, at least some of the public discourse has pivoted to whether Jiri Prochazka basically let him off the hook, taking it easier than he should have right up until he very generously walked face-first into a left h...

Six different dudes have held the UFC light heavyweight title since Jon Jones vacated it for the last time (well, the last time so far) back in August 2020. Friendly-ass Jan Blachowicz, old-ass Glover Teixeira, weird-ass Jiri Prochazka, off-putting-ass Jamahal Hill, boring-ass Magomed Ankalaev, and legendary-ass Alex Pereira. Yes, that’s a lot of ass, which is mostly what 205 has been since Jones’...

The UFC went to Seattle and put on an event many are calling the best of the year so far, where Joe Oliver Pyfer defeated Israel Adesanya in a main event bout that might make ya boi BODYBAGZZZZZZZZZZ somebody in the middleweight division. In other action, Michael Chiesa got his soft-filter retirement celebration (while Niko Price most certainly did not), and Alexa Grasso did some absolutely horrif...

Most Valuable Promotions announced eight more bouts on Tuesday to fully flesh out its undercard for Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano on May 16 and … well, hello there, Junior dos Santos. Long time no see. Yeah, a couple of these newly revealed fights actually are of some interest, including JDS vs. Robelis Despaigne and Muhammad Mokaev re-entering the chat against Adriano Moraes. Plus, no sooner does...

Those little rascals at Most Valuable Promotions added another spectacle fight to their big, loud MMA show coming up on Netflix on May 16. Nate Diaz and Mike Perry are set to do the damn thing at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, rounding out a lineup of three featured fights that also includes Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano and Francis Ngannou vs. Philipe Lins. And that, kids, puts us in an unexpecte...

Months and months. The UFC spent months hyping the release of its White House event fight card. Back in July of last year, Dana White said it would be the “Sphere on steroids.” In December, the President of the United States promised “eight or nine championship fights.” Basically every UFC fighter begged to be involved. Imagine our surprise, then, when the promotion finally released the full list...

Alex Pereira announced last week that he is vacating the UFC light heavyweight title. Why? Well, nobody has said for sure but … we’ve got some ideas. Ya boi Poatan isn’t just going to give up the strap for no reason. He must be chasing something and, honestly, the only thing for Pereira to chase outside of 205 is a heavyweight title fight (probably at the White House) against one of three men: Jon...

As is so typical in this sport, they’re going to give us the superfight. They’re just going to give it to us about 10 years too late. Such is the case with Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano, which will go down May 16 (yes, May 16, 2026) at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that the people giving it to us aren’t the UFC, but Most Valuable Promotions — and the fi...

On the heels of last week’s stinker between Tallison Teixeira and Tai Tuivasa at UFC 325, this weekend brought us Rizvan Kuniev vs. Jailton Almeida and, wow, holy shit did it absolutely suck. Not to beat a dead horse here but: Heavyweight. Still shitty after all these years, huh? In fact, we have to ask the question: Is the heavyweight division shittier now than it has ever been? That’s a scary th...

They did it again, brother, but when it was over it sort of seemed like they probably didn’t need to go to the trouble. Once again, Alexander Volkanovski defeated Diego Lopes by hard-fought but clear-cut unanimous decision, retaining his men's featherweight title at UFC 325. Somehow, the 37-year-old Volk is aging as gracefully as an MMA fighter can, looking damn near unbeatable with a remarkably v...

Apologies for missing the Proper yesterday, friends. We’re back today with an episode of the Co-Main Event Podcast Patreon Live Chat, which we’re releasing for free to everybody. Seemed like a bad week to miss an episode, what with it being on the heels of the first PLE of the Paramount+ Era and the week before UFC 325. So, here ya go! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s happening. The Paramount+ Era is upon us. What surprises are in store? We’ll find out on Saturday, as UFC 324 goes down, featuring the interim lightweight championship fight between Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett. How does Pimblett (more than a 2-to-1 favorite) beat Gaethje? We’re not totally sure, but maybe that’s why we’re dumb podcast hosts and the oddsmakers are the oddsmakers. Plus, K...

Just about 10 days before UFC 324, and oddsmakers still see Paddy Pimblett as a bit more than a 2-to-1 favorite to win the interim lightweight title over Justin Gaethje. I mean, damn. Does that seem right to you guys? Honestly, it feels super weird to us, but considering how bad we are at betting and how good oddsmakers are at, ahem, making odds, perhaps they are right? And if they are, are we all...