The Co-Main Event MMA Podcast

On Saturday in Salt Lake City (man it still feels weird to type that), Leon Edwards' long, strange journey to a UFC welterweight title shot finally comes to a head. Edwards will fight champion Kamaru Usman in the main event of UFC 278, where Edwards is going off as close to a 3-to-1 underdog. It's been such a long slog, with so many broken promises and missed opportunities, how will Edwards react...

So, Mike Tyson is big mad at Hulu for producing a mini-series about the boxer's life without any of his input. He's happy with Dana White, however, who Tyson says turned down a lot of money to advertise the new show on the UFC. We ask: Is Tyson right to be peeved? Is this a new business niche for Hulu, since they allegedly did the same shit to Pam Anderson earlier this year? Is that shady or nah?...

More than merely making some physical adjustments in the wake of her title loss to Juliana Pena at UFC 269, it seemed like Amanda Nunes just flat vowed to show the world she was still the women's MMA GOAT on Saturday at UFC 277. And, yeah, mission accomplished. Nunes battered Pena from pillar to post for 25 minutes in their main event fight, duly recapturing the 135-pound title and reminding us al...

There are two primary questions we hope to have answered by the UFC 277 main event. Firstly, did Juliana Pena merely catch lighting in a bottle when she took the women's bantamweight title off Amanda Nunes during their first meeting at UFC 269? Secondly, is Nunes still about that life? If the answer to one or both of these queries is yes, then we figure we've got a good chance of seeing Nunes reca...

Yeah, so Brian Ortega and Yair Rodriguez were just getting down to what was shaping up as a pretty fun main event on Saturday's UFC on ABC card when Ortega's shoulder popped out of joint while he was trying to escape an arm bar. So, that was a very specific sort of bummer that might only happen in MMA. Now, you gotta try to explain to your non-MMA buddies what a shame it was that this guy's arm po...

Where to start with this guy Rafael Fiziev? The technique? The power? The composure? How about the takedown defense? Poor Rafael dos Anjos spent 15 minutes trying everything he could think of to get Fiziev down and almost none of it worked. Then, in the fourth round, RDA has a little success, actually lands a couple takedowns and you start to wonder if things are gonna go Dos Anjos' way. Answer: N...

On one hand, you gotta hand it to Israel Adesanya for beating Jared Cannonier in the UFC 276 main event without really seeming to try that hard. On the other hand, man, it really didn't seem like he was trying that hard, did it? I guess when the Undertaker-inspired entrance gets better reviews than the fight, maybe that's not a great sign. At this point, it's pretty obvious there is a wide gulf be...

It's international fight week and UFC 276 looks pretty stacked. Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway are gonna go out there and try to make their series one for the ages. Robbie Lawler's gonna be there. Cowboy Cerrone's gonna be there. Sean O'Malley. Uriah Hall. If you recognize any of these names it should be because they're some of the usual suspects the UFC generally calls when it wants to pu...

Since we missed The Proper on Monday due to some family vacationing, we decided to offer up this episode of the Live Chat for free via the CME feed. Hope you all enjoy this hour of unfettered discourse and #WildOnWednesday action featuring the questions, comment and concerns of the beloved patrons of the CME. On tap this week, among other things: fallout from Saturday's UFC on ESPN event, Tony Kel...

You want twists? You want turns? You want a fight where both guys get to look strong AND vulnerable en route to one of best light heavyweight title matches of all time? Well, we give you Jiri Prochazka vs. Glover Teixeira at UFC 275. That was a crackerjack, is what that was. Plus, Taila Santos would have won if she hadn't lost against Valentina Shevchenko -- and maybe she would have won if she did...

Challenger Jiri Prochazka is going off as nearly a two-to-one favorite over light heavyweight champion Glover Teixeira in the main event of Saturday's UFC 275. That should give you something to chew on, as this bout (just Prochazka's third in the UFC) pits the younger man's unorthodox, oddball style against the older fella's meat-and-potatoes approach. Who wins? It's gonna be interesting to find o...

Every time somebody asks Jorge Masvidal about his alleged encounter with Colby Covington outside the Papi Steak in Miami, it seems like Masvidal answers with a paragraph-long confession to the crime, only to end his statement with a pronouncement of his innocence. So ... is he trying to say he didn't do it? Or is he just saying no jury would convict him? Elsewhere, the UFC has finally confirmed so...

We can't do it anymore, you guys. It's too much. Seems like every damn weekend our social media timelines are clogged with people arguing about some MMA judges' decision. Did they score it right? Did they score the ROUNDS right? What about the criteria? How about open scoring? ENOUGH. We're done. Or, at least, we could stand do to it a lot less frequently. This week, new rule: one judging controve...

What happens when you sit down to record the CME Proper and right away notice that Dustin Poirier has responded to one of your tweets? Why, you live-tweet him right back as you do the show, of course. That's what happens to us this week, as Poirier mulls the idea of fighting Colby Covington at 170. Elsewhere, we wonder how much credit -- a little? or a lot? -- is due Jan Blachowicz for defeating A...

We had ourselves a good, old fashioned emotional roller coaster during UFC 274, didn't we, Mainiacs? First you had Charles Oliveira missing weight (bad!) and being stripped of the title (real bad!), only to rebound to choke the life out of Justin Gaethje (very good!) in the first round of their main event bout. Now, Oliveira will be "no. 1 contender" headed into whatever is next at 155 (pretty wei...

Just as we sat down to record this episode of the Power Hour, news flashed across the wire that Charles Oliveira had missed weight, been stripped of the UFC lightweight title and will now fight Justin Gaethje in a five-rounder where Oliveira can't win back the title. So we thought: Well ... fuck. This changes everything. We scrapped plans for what we were going to talk about during this week's Pow...

Dueling title fights are on tap for Saturday's UFC 274. In the lightweight championship scrap, both Charles Oliveira and Justin Gaethje will no doubt choose violence -- it's just a matter of exactly how and what kind. Plus, Carla Esparza has a chance to shatter the record for longest stints between UFC title reigns if she can beat Rose Namajunas for strawweight gold. Kinda hard to imagine that hap...

It turned out to be a wild weekend in combat sports and, perhaps wildest of all, the guy who ultimately pulled off the biggest coup didn't even fight. Francis Ngannou crashed the party in the ring after Tyson Fury's win over Dillian Whyte and the two heavyweights proceeded to talk about a potential match-up between them in way that made it sound like they are both actually serious about it. So, uh...

With heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou recovering from surgery and assumedly still on the outs with UFC brass, the company is teasing a potential 265-pound bout between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic. Possibly for an interim heavyweight title. Possibly this summer. Ummmm, yes, please. We'd like that very much. Plus, AJ McKee found out the hard way that it's really tough it win all the fights. And Bela...

We said we wanted to see Khamzat Chimaev tested and, brother, he sure was during a three-round epic with Gilbert Burns. You know what? He mostly passed. There are a couple things -- specifically, his willingness to say, 'fuck it' and just brawl -- that still worry us about Chimaev, but it's clear now he is mostly deserving of the hype. Question is: What's next? Also, how you gonna boo Aljamain Ste...

UFC 273 might be a teensy bit of a lower-profile affair that the last few UFC pay-per-views, but the top three fights are still gonna be a lot of fun. Oddsmakers don't think these bouts will be all that competitive, but this week we take a deep dive into Alexander Volkanovski vs. Chan Sung Jung, Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan and Gilbert Burns vs. Khamzat Chimaev. Who will prevail? What will we le...

Curtis Blaydes is big, athletic and -- as he proved on Saturday night -- has a well-rounded skillset. On top of that, he's only 31 years old. In the aging and shallow heavyweight division, all those things add up to make him a perennial title contender if not, at some point, a champion. Chris Daukaus? Weeeeeellll, maybe not so much. In other news, Demetrious Johnson and Sexyama nab wins in One Cha...

It had been a couple years since the UFC was able to make the trek across the pond and perhaps that break allowed everybody's aggression to become duly PENT. Because once the ref said "fight"? Hoo boy, some people got busy. You had Tom Aspinall kicking down the door of contendership. You had Paddy the Baddy notching another win and being adorable (as long as you don't find out about his social med...

We thought Magomed Ankalaev vs. Thiago Santos would be a banger, but instead it turned out to be a tepid 25-minute affair where two aggressive, powerful light heavyweights canceled each other out. So, that was a letdown. But in Eagle FC, Diego Sanchez looked slightly better than expected in a loss to Kevin Lee. So, that was a treat. Plus, now that Bellator really is in the Adam Borics business, ma...

In the immediate wake of his lopsided and predictable unanimous decision win over Jorge Masvidal on Saturday at UFC 272, Colby Covington got right to work building his NEXT big grudge match. This one (he hopes), against Dustin Poirier. Yeah, if we were Poirier's managers we're giving that one a hard pass. At this point however, doesn't it kinda seem guys like Poirier, Nate Diaz, Masvidal, Covingto...