The Co-Main Event MMA Podcast

Well, Main-iacs, the time is finally here. This is the week the UFC heads across town to (the) Sphere for UFC 306. Dana White has convinced himself that the dummies on the internet said he couldn’t do it, so a lot is riding on how things come out. The UFC is promising short films between fights and that the fights themselves will take place in “different worlds.” What’s that mean? We don’t know! Oh, also, Sean O’Malley defends his men’s bantamweight title against Merab Dwalishvili and Alexa Grasso looks to settle her feud with Valentina Shevchenko. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since we missed the Proper yesterday, we thought we'd go ahead and put this episode of the Live Chat out on the regular free CME podcast feed. For you free listeners, think of it as a view behind the curtain at what's going on at our Patreon Page. Seriously, it's wild! It's weird! Is it sometimes wonderful? Only one way to find out. Join the team: https://www.patreon.com/comainevent For those of you who are already with us, please enjoy an ad free version of the show. This week: the UFC's obsession with Jon Jones being the GOAT gets even weirder, Alex Pereira thinks about going back to middleweight (?), and women's MMA experiences a lull. Plus, one patron will play in the international box lacrosse championship, one patron is about to have his first BJJ match and one patron pulls off his most devious heel move yet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Caio Borralho and Jared Cannonier actually had themselves an entertaining scrap on Saturday in the main event of the UFC's latest offering on ESPN. In the end, it was Borralho notching the unanimous decision win … after coming as close as humanly possible to knocking out Cannonier without them actually scoring it that way on the official record. It was clearly the biggest win of Borralho’s career and rocketed him up to No. 5 on the UFC’s official middleweight rankings. But did it also make him the most interesting title contender for DDP? Plus, Borralho is a product of the Fighting Nerds MMA team. Say what now? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does Dricus du Plessis keep doing this shit, man? This is a guy who fights like he’s in PRIDE in like 2005. He rushes in, throwing them haymakers, seemingly just hoping for the best — and somehow it’s still working for him. This he proved Saturday at UFC 305, defeating Israel Adesanya via fourth round submission (!) to retain his middleweight title. It really and truly boggles the mind. Plus, Carlos Prates looks like a bad man and Ariel Helwani is on the move. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re going to Perth for UFC 305 and Dricus Du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya for the UFC middleweight title. It’s both a fight and a fight card that are flying under the radar just a little bit here. There’s a lot on this show that seems like it might be of, uh, local interest. Hold on, though, are we giving this card short shrift? Does this fight between DDP and Izzy actually have bigger implications than we are giving it credit for? Plus, Francis Ngannou’s MMA return is on the books. Too soon? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The UFC this week made good on its promise to book a men’s featherweight title fight between Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway and we … are … stoked. For hardcore fans, this might be the best fight available right now (if we’re really going through with Jones vs. Stipe instead of Jones vs. Aspinall) and actually getting it is cause for celebration. It’s going down at UFC 308 in October. Only question is, will Holloway’s BMF belt be on the line, too, or are we finally admitting the BMF title is just some shit we hand out to whoever, whenever it fits our needs? Plus, Dana White would like us to believe the judge denying the settlement in the UFC antitrust lawsuit is rooted in some high school bullshit and Conor McGregor showed up to cosplay at Stugis of all goddamned places. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Belal Muhammad went and did it. The man the UFC forced to go 10 fights without a loss between 2019-2024 before finally granting him a title shot. The man who came into Manchester a significant underdog to champion Leon Edwards. The one we all thought faced a terrible matchup of styles behind enemy lines. That guy. He walked out of UFC 304 the new welterweight champ on Saturday. So, shows what we all know. The so-called experts. Something tells us Muhammad’s not going to be the UFC brass’ favorite champ. But at least now we’re all damn sure going to remember the name. Plus, Tom Aspinall upholds his end of the bargain as far as any of these potential heavyweight superfights are concerned. And Muhammad Mokaev won his big grudge match against Manel Kape and still pretty much got fired. That’s actually kinda hard to do. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oops! … He did it again. Jake Paul played with our hearts, got lost in the game on Saturday, as he dispatched Mike Perry via sixth round TKO. Things went a little off the rails after that, with Conor McGregor trying to “fire” Perry on social media and calling Paul a “pissbag.” Meanwhile, Paul called out Alex Pereira in a fight which seemed both interesting and also impossible. OK, so hear us out, guys. Paul is now 10-1 as professional boxer. He’s proven himself to be a compelling draw. He’s also a pretty good boxer. Though he’s clearly not championship level, would it ever be possible for him to – let’s say if he wins five or six more fights – to compete for some lesser boxing title? Like, the IBWQZF cruiserweight belt or something? I mean, he probably wouldn't win, but it seems like insane every day to ponder if he might at least get the opportunity. Also, UFC 304 is this weekend, where Belal Muhammad finally gets his welterweight title fight against Leon Edwards and Tom Aspinall accomplishes the dubious achievement of actually defending the “interim” heavyweight championship against Curtis Blaydes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Things Jon Jones has done on Twitter over the last few weeks include, but are not limited to: Announcing he gained 50/50 custody of a son we (maybe?) didn’t know he had. Posted a picture with his new cybertruck. Forgot his own birthday (maybe?). And also posted that he cut half his finger off at the Las Vegas airport. Maybe? Hard to know. After Jones did the old tweet-and-delete of his finger tweet, he pretty much went back to business as usual. Like, tweeting about how magic is real, and Jesus Christ is the strongest magic of all. Shit like that. Also, like getting charged with a couple misdemeanors in the wake of his recent weird alleged confrontation with drug testers. So, truth is, we don't know the status of any of Jones' fingers at the moment. But, like, if Jon Jones lost a finger, we'll find out about it eventually, right? Maybe? Plus, the UFC is really leaning into the Just Some Fights ass shit this summer and … hey … Jake Paul vs. Mike Perry is this weekend! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, you know what they say about sunshine and the proverbial dog’s ass. Hard to believe, but Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal went out there and had an (allegedly) entertaining boxing match over the weekend. We guess the law of averages says it was bound to happen eventually. Question is, though, now that we’re this far down the road into the overwhelmingly disappointing “old MMA guys try to box” period of our declining society, did anybody watch? Plus, Jon Jones says he and Stipe finally have something on the books and Reug Reug wins a fight against a guy named Ketchup that was even more ridiculous than it sounds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Turned out, Alex Pereira didn’t need the dark arts to defeat Jiri Prochazka. He just needed Prochazka to continually rush at him with little to no defenses around his face until Pereira could start landing his bombs. Next thing you know, Jiri was standing there making his sad samurai face while Poatan was getting his hand raised. But now that Pereira is ensconced as UFC light heavyweight champion and one of the UFC’s most interesting draws, what’s next for him? I mean, if you’re the UFC and you want to create a huge spectacle AND make tons of money, it’s got to be Jon Jones, right? Right? Plus, Diego Lopes is now the champion of the 1-6-5 and Andrei Arlovski – who has been with the UFC longer than Dana White – is done. At least inside the octagon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So, now we know. It was the toe. The pinkie toe, to be exact. The littlest pig. That’s what kept Conor McGregor out of the fight of the year, his grudge (?) match years in the making against Michael Chandler. And lo, what irony of all ironies it was the original SLG himself, Chael Sonnen, who trolled Conor into posting pics of the injured digit online which … yeah, that went about like you’d expect. With McGregor and Chandler off (perhaps for good), this weekend we get a revamped UFC 303 card that looks, well, just fine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conor McGregor is out. Alex Pereira is in. Michael Chandler is out. Jiri Prochazka is in. Jamahal Hill is out. Anthony Smith is in. Elsewhere, Khamzat Chimaev is out. Ikram Alizkerov (?) is in. Mike Tyson is out (at least for the moment). Mike Perry is in. Seriously, enough you guys. Plus, Anderson and Chael boxed kind of. And Ben is back from Ireland! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dustin Poirier gave it his all, putting on the sort of gritty and endlessly game performance against Islam Makhachev at UFC 302 that we've come to expect from him during his great career. But it wasn't enough. There was never really a moment in this fight where it seemed like Cool Dusty P was going to win. Poirier had that dog in him, but so did Makhachev. The result? And still. Now, Poirier contemplates retirement while Makhachev waits to see who's next. Plus, Sean Strickland put on another sleepy, split-decision Strickland performance against Paulo Costa. And is there any end to the bullshit the UFC will make us sit through during a PPV? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dustin Poirier is already an all-time great lightweight. He's a shoo-in first-ballot UFC Hall of Famer. He's beloved by fans. He possesses a resume that will stand-up with almost anyone's. But you know what would be really transformative for him? If he became undisputed lightweight champion. This weekend at UFC 302, Poirier gets what is likely his final opportunity to seize that crown when he takes on Islam Makhachev. It definitely won't be easy. Poirier is going off as close to a 6-to-1 underdog at some sportsbooks. But we can't help but wonder ... what if ... Plus, Sean Strickland and Paulo Costa should be an interesting match-up of styles between two well-known, uh, characters. But only one of them needs to win it to keep his hype train rolling. Spoiler: It's Sean Strickland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey! It’s the 12th anniversary of the Co-Main Event Podcast! Yaaaay! Didn’t think we’d still be here, did you? DID YOU? Haha, well, screw you haters, we’ll see you in the passion project gotcha videos we get our video staffs to produce making fun of you specifically. Funny to look back where it all began. Most of the fighters we talked about in those early days have faded from view now (or at least have moved on to the bare knuckle boxing portions of their combat sports careers) … with the notable exceptions of a few, including both Jon Jones and Anderson Silva (technically retired, but whatevs), who both just so happen to figure into our discussions THIS VERY WEEK. First though, you gotta take your hat off to boxing, which has a fascinating feud over its undisputed heavyweight title going on right now (and it doesn’t get much better than that). Also, UFC 304 fights got announced and they answer some of our biggest matchmaking questions of the year … while raising new ones. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By now we all know what Derrick Lewis brings to the table. You either like it, or you don't. Lewis is going to come into fight week and be cheeky and affable, claiming to have not really trained and/or not to know his opponent's name. Then he's going to either A) Almost lose his fight before winning it or B) Almost win his fight before losing it. Afterward, he's going to take his pants off. This is pretty much what happened on Saturday against Rodrigo Nascimento, where Lewis ultimately emerged with a third-round TKO win after two-plus round where he flirted with the idea of messing around and losing. He won, whipped off his shorts and fanned the nearly unconscious Nascimento with them before sliding his cup out and tossing it into press row. So, yeah, everything went according to plan ... until an MMA "journalist" asked Dana White to sign Lewis' athletic supporter at the post fight press conference. Ugh. What the hell, you guys. Plus, Jake Paul and Mike Tyson faced off for the first time this week, while over in Saudi Arabia, the heavyweight boxing match that actually matters is scheduled for this weekend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fitting that as the Co-Main Event Podcast celebrates its 600th episode, it's an old dog making the most headlines from Saturday's UFC 301. If Jose Also was supposed to serve as a stepping stone for Jonathan Martinez down there in Rio over the weekend, Aldo did not get the memo. He showed up looking like the Jose Jr. of old, pretty much putting a whipping on the younger Martinez over three rounds. Vintage Aldo! Plus, Alexandre Pantoja successfully defended his men's flyweight title against Steve Erceg but didn't necessarily come out of it smelling like a rose--and Michel Pereira's crazy ass back flips his way into our hearts once again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A few years ago it might have seemed farfetched that one day we'd be sitting here spending the majority of an entire episode of the Proper talking about Bare Knuckle FC and a Jake Paul fight, but that's the reality of where combat sports is at the moment. The big headlines for the weekend were: Mike Perry dismantling Thiago Alves in a minute flat at Knucklemania IV and Paul's fight against Mike Tyson being sanctioned as an actual, real professional boxing match (sort of) by the Texas athletic commission. By comparison, the UFC's Fight Night event got left in the dust. So, there you go, there's our show. Boom. Done. Oh wait, except that UFC 301 is this weekend down there in Rio. So we gotta talk about that, too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In all the hubbub over UFC 300, most of us missed the juicy detail that Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos was down there sitting cageside on the elbow of Ari Emanuel during the event. You know who didn't miss it? David Spade. The UFC OG celebrity himself posted a pic on his socials blaming "Ted" for blocking his view of the octagon. So, that's interesting. Just a few weeks after Netflix acquires broadcast rights for WWE, there's "Ted" checking out the merchandise at the UFC's biggest event of the year. Maybe Sarandos is just a hardcore. Or ... maybe ... Well, we're certainly not going to pass up the opportunity to speculate wildly. Plus, PFL had a pretty good event on Friday and Ryan Garcia's crazy ass actually won that big boxing match. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices