The Craic with Petesy Carroll

Following a drama-filled weekend for Petesy at Cage Warriors 170, the promotion’s president Graham Boylan reached out and the situation is now resolved. Petesy shares the timeline of events which led to the mending of the relationship, which will see him happily continue to cover the European organisation in the future.  After that, the Trident of Knowledge forms, with Donagh Corby and Andy Steven...

Petesy recaps a weekend where he was banned from Cage Warriors 170, became the subject of a baffling “gag”, jousted for his event credential and ultimately witnessed a fantastic night for Irish MMA.  Petesy recaps his online and in-person interactions with Cage Warriors president Graham Boylan and speaks to newly crowned welterweight champion James Sheehan, the hottest free agent in the sport Paul...

Aside from Paul Hughes’ looming free agency, one of the main talking points going into Cage Warriors 170 is Team Ryano vying for a Cage Warriors title for the first time since 2013, when the legendary Neil Seery clinched flyweight gold.  Speaking to Andy Ryan, Petesy discusses the golden era of the sport which occurred around the same time while the infamous Team Ryan boss underlines why he believ...

Paul Hughes not being signed by the UFC has been one of the great mysteries on the European scene for the past number of years. Ahead of his first round knockout of Jan Quaeyhaegens at Cage Warriors 161, Hughes revealed that he had turned down a short notice debut with the promotion and an opportunity to compete on TUF due to injury. Now, before he headlines Cage Warriors 170 in Dublin this Saturd...

Former Cage Warriors champions Caolan Loughran and Rhys McKee join The Craic ahead of must-win fights at UFC Atlantic City.  Rhys McKee discusses being away from his new-born daughter for the first time, why he is particularly excited about fighting Chidi Njokuani and how this camp feels different to he previous ones. Caolan discusses the influx of supporters he expects in Atlantic City, including...

On The Craic, we’ve previously heard about what Ilia Topuria means to Spanish MMA and the broader Hispanic MMA community, but we have never got the perspective from his true homeland, Georgia.  Today, Petesy is joined by celebrated Georgian mixed-martial-arts journalist, Giorgi Kokiashvili of Setanta Sports, to discuss how the sport has exploded in the small nation, which has a population of just...

Another road edition of The Craic saw Petesy pull a 19-hour shift, part of which he was joined by Donagh Corby as they embarked on a trip up north for Bellator Belfast. Petesy speaks to the legendary Dan Hardy, number one contender to Johnny Eblen's middleweight crown Fabian Edwards, Irish boxing royalty Mick Conlan and the Score's Nick Baldwin.  He recaps all the thrills and spills from the event...

Former Cage Warriors lightweight champion and a legend of the Irish scene, Joe McColgan joins the The Craic for the very first time to take a look back at his career and to underline the lack of regret he has in terms of not making it to the UFC.  A Belfast native, McColgan highlights his surprise that the upcoming Bellator card has not generated much buzz in the city and also sheds light on the i...

The Trident of Knowledge form with Donagh Corby and Andy Stevenson returning to The Craic to discuss Omran Chabaan of Team KF and Paddy McCorry of FAI being announced as cast members for the upcoming season of TUF, which begins filming in a little over a week’s time.  The trio shed light on the fighters careers up until this point, consider whether Alex Grasso or Valentina Shevchenko’s team would...

Michael Venom Page had a perfect introduction to his new promotion at UFC 299. From his spectacular homage to the Undertaker in his entrance, to his signature showboating in the Octagon and his unanimous decision win over Kevin Holland, it went about as well as it could.  However, in the post-fight press conference, Dana White underlined that he wasn’t a fan of his ringwalk and disclosed that he m...

The stoppage in the main event of PFL Paris may have been the least interesting thing Petesy experienced on his trip to the City of Light.  Petesy gives his take on the passion of the fan base, the (wild) enthusiasm of the media and explains why he feels MMA has gone mainstream in France in a way that it never did in the U.K. and Ireland. He also explains why Paris to PFL is on a much bigger scale...

Cedric Doumbé’s debut for PFL in Paris last year was one of the great moments of 2023. In his first showcase since, the kickboxing champion looks to remain undefeated when he clashes with an opponent from his old stomping ground, MMA Factory, who also represents the toughest test of his MMA carer to date, the undefeated Baysangur “Baki” Chamsoudinov.  The great Farah Hannoun of MMA Junkie returns...

Ilia Topuria has become an overnight sensation in Spain on the back of his UFC 298 title win over Alexander Volkanovski. Since returning home he has been received by the President of Spain, been given a hero’s welcome at the Santiago Bernabéu and has had record-breaking appearances on one of Spain’s most beloved primetime TV shows.  The great Gonzalo Campos, commentator for UFC on Eurosport and th...

Friend of the podcast, Philip O’Connor, is one of the most experienced sports journalists Ireland has ever produced. Having covered stars from all different backgrounds on the biggest stages in the world - including World Cups and Olympic Games - we ask, what must Ian Machado Garry and his team do to win back favour among the Irish fan base and Irish media?  O’Connor discusses where the Irishman’s...

After his sensational debut on The Craic last week ahead of Ilia Topuria’s title capture at UFC 298, Danny Segura of Hablemos MMA and MMA Junkie returns from Mexico City to discuss the implications of Yair Rodriguez’s showdown with Brian Ortega in the co-main event of this weekend’s UFC card.  Segura gives insight into the reaction amongst Hispanic MMA fans in the aftermath of Topuria’s title capt...

The fantastic Dublin duo of Donagh Corby and Andy Stevenson return to The Craic to give their thoughts on Ian Machado Garry’s UFC 298 performance.  The trio - who would prefer to be referred to as “The Trident of Knowledge” hence forth - discussed Machado Garry’s appearance on The MMA Hour, the need for him to engage broader Irish media outside of the MMA bubble, his potential return to Dublin, an...

Donagh Corby returns to The Craic to discuss whether Ian Garry is gaining the same traction among Irish MMA fans compared to the country’s other UFC charges.  The D15 duo give their thoughts on Garry’s clash with Geoff Neal, contemplate the Dubliner’s readiness for the Anaheim date compared to his last scheduled outing with Vicente Luque amidst the social media storm that surrounded him, and consi...

The great Danny Segura of the Hablemos MMA Podcast and MMA Junkie joins Petesy Carroll to discuss how Ilia Topuria has become a star in his adopted home of Spain. Segura discusses how Topuria has garnered mainstream coverage nationally and how his dreams of competing at the home of Real Madrid, Santiago Bernabéu, may be a reality.  With pound-for-pound great Alexander Volkanovski standing between...

Farah Hannoun of MMA Junkie has given the French MMA scene a bigger spotlight than anyone across the major MMA publications.  Joining the The Craic this week, she gives her take on Paris being the new capital of European MMA and debates whether PFL’s Cedric Doumbé is more popular than former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou nationally. The veteran reporter also highlights how the sport of...

Petesy take us behind the scenes of an upcoming project he is working on with surging apparel powerhouse, Montirex, which will focus on the crown jewel of U.K. MMA, Leon Edwards.

Rhys McKee returned to The Craic to discuss his March 30th date with seasoned veteran Chidi Njokuani who returns to welterweight for the first time since 2016 when they meet in Atlantic City.  McKee shares his feelings on becoming father, the Irish contingent that are said to be arriving in Atlantic City to support him and Caolan Loughran and the tragic injury of teammate Ryan “Chaos” Curtis.  For...

During the pandemic, Jack Cartwright was bantamweight champion of Cage Warriors and considered one of the best prospects in European MMA. After a forgettable DQ win over Sylwester Miller, the word was that the Manchester native would be given an opportunity on Contender Series to prove he was UFC calibre.  The opportunity came a whopping seventeen months after the Miller fight, with Cartwright com...

Caolan Loughran was dealt an almighty swich-a-roo in his UFC debut last September in Paris which resulted in his first professional defeat.  Now, booked for his sophomore outing against Angel Pacheco in Atlantic City on March 30, he has ventured to Arizona for a three-week training camp at Fight Ready, the stomping ground of UFC champions like Henry Cejudo and Deiveson Figueiredo.  The Tyrone man...

After their lofty aspirations for the proposed UFC Manchester in July, Petesy Carroll welcomed back U.K. journalist Chisanga Malata so they could walk back their hopes of joint headline event with Leon Edwards and Tom Aspinall at the top of the bill.  Following the devastating news of Irish flyweight Ryan Curtis suffering a career-ending injury last week, Petesy recalls covering the Dubliner’s car...

Six months ago, it felt like a UFC Dublin event in 2024 was bound to happen. Now, at the turn of the year, it seems highly unlikely that the UFC will return to mark the tenth anniversary of the historic 2014 show which marked the emergence of Conor McGregor as a household name and the greater Irish Invasion for the promotion.  Petesy is joined by Irish media stalwarts Donagh Corby and Andy Stevens...