The Co-Main Event MMA Podcast

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

Well, don't we all feel stupid now? After weeks of dumping on the UFC 300 card for not living up to our expectations, it finally happened on Saturday and it ... was ... bonkers. You had Max Holloway put on a performance for the ages against Justin Gaethje in a fight that more than showcased the BMF status of both guys. You had Alex Pereira give Herb Dean the ol' "Not now, Herb!" hand gesture and go straight from a low blow to a highlight reel knockout of Jamahal Hill. Plus, Weili Zhang survived a gritty challenge from Yan Xiaonan and Arman Tsarukyan stayed out of Charles Oliveira's many submission attempts long enough to score a split decision win. And all that barely scratches the surface. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Saturday night, the greatest fight card in the history of fight cards comes at us from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Or, at least, that's what the UFC wants us to think about UFC 300. Honestly, the card isn't too bad, with two actual championship fights and one "championship fight." Your main event, the light heavyweight title (unification, sort of?) bout between Alex Pereira and Jamahal Hill will be a fun punchy-kicky sort of a deal. Zhang Weili vs. Yan Xiaonan has been somewhat anticipated. Justin Gaethje vs. Max Holloway will no doubt be killer, BMF title or no. Plus, you've got the promotional debut of Kayla Harrison and plucky young underdog Bo Nickal trying to continue his Cinderella march through the middleweight division. So, yeah, good job, UFC, which will definitely not pat itself on the back for putting on a decent fight card to commemorate event No. 300 or whatever this actually is. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, Chris Weidman can't very well retire after that one, can he? We had hoped perhaps Saturday's Fight Night bout against Bruno Silva would be the former middleweight champion's last but ... not only did he "win," but the circumstances were so weird that Weidman pretty much has to come back for at least one more. After 12 and a half minutes of foul-filled action, where at times he looked much improved and at times looked like he was about to get spectacularly knocked out, Weidman pulled off the here-to-for unseen double eye-poke during the same one-two combination. Silva (understandably) couldn't continue, the fight was stopped and somehow Weidman got a unanimous decision (?) win out of it. MMA, man. It's fucked up. Plus, Manon Fiorot may well be the No. 1 contender at women's flyweight, just as soon as Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko get done coaching TUF and Nate THE TRAIN Landwehr reminds us that he might be the funnest thing going in the UFC. WHOOP HIS ASS AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS!!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The years-long staring contest between the UFC and some of its former fighters is over. The class action antitrust lawsuit between the two parties ended last week with the MMA company agreeing to pay a $335 million settlement to the aggrieved fighters. That's great for the individual fighters, most of whom will now get a chunk of change. Maybe not so great for MMA at large, as the bigger picture structural and competitive changes that might have come along with the lawsuit will likely now not happen. But considering the alternatives, did the fighters do the right thing? Plus, Rose Namajunas returned with a win, though perhaps not exactly the kind of win she needed. Especially not with Erin Blanchfield and Manon Fiorot about to have an apparent No. 1 contender fight this weekend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After showing up to the "Road House" premiere looking like he was in a *cough* heightened state of awareness *cough* Conor McGregor once again iterated that he wants to return to the UFC to finish out the final two fights on his contract. So. Conor McGregor wants to fight. The UFC seems to want Conor McGregor to fight. Michael Chandler DAMN SURE wants to fight. What's the hold up? Plus, what's up with Nate Diaz suddenly being all nice and shit? Plus, we still haven't found something that can kill Mark Coleman, and Rose Namajunas returns on a fairly anonymous Fight Night card at the Apex. Because of course. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If Sean O'Malley needed a statement win to prove he is perhaps the class of the UFC's growing group of young stars, he got one Saturday, essentially pitching a perfect game against Marlon "Chito" Vera at UFC 299. O'Malley kept Chito at the end of his reach, dictating the pace and the terms of engagement and the best thing you could say about Vera by the end is that he's one tough son of a bitch. Plus, how about that Cool Dusty P, eh? Yaaaay. And, oh yeah, Francis Ngannou got terribly knocked out. Booo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sean O'Malley looks to avenge his funky 2020 injury loss to Chito Vera on Saturday at UFC 299. Kinda weird to think that we already consider O'Malley one of the UFC's most established stars and champions when in actuality he'll be gunning for his first successful title defense this weekend. It seems like a pretty good scrap, but make no mistake, UFC 299 has a lot more going for it than just O'Malley vs. Chito. Dustin Poirier vs. Benoît Saint Denis, the debut of Michael Venom Page, Curtis Blaydes vs. Jailton Almeida and Mateusz Gamrot vs. Rafael dos Anjos just to name a few. If that wasn't enough, Francis Ngannou heads back to Saudi Arabia to see if he can prove his performance against Tyson Fury was no fluke when he takes on Anthony Joshua. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Ortega injured himself before his co-main event fight against Yair Rodriguez even started on Saturday, appearing to roll his ankle during Bruce Buffer’s fighter introductions. Then Ortega got lit up like a Roman candle by Rodriguez in round one. Got dropped. Got pounded on. Got his whole shit broke, basically. Somehow, though, Ortega rebounded in rounds two and three and ended up actually winning this thing with a gnarly arm triangle choke in the third. Damn! Add to this already delightful stew that Ortega entertained (?) reporters during prefight media festivities by telling an obviously bullshit story about eagles and – hoo boy – pretty weird week for that dude. Plus, judges declared Royval the better Brandon (was he thooooough?) and Bellator fighters dominated PFL fighters in all the fights except the one that mattered most. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everything came up Ilia Topuria on Saturday at UFC 298, as the 27-year-old Spaniard fulfilled his self-avowed destiny with a thunderous second-round knockout of longstanding men’s featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. The outcome was bittersweet for longtime fans, signaling perhaps both the end of one great champion’s reign and the emergence of a bold new successor. Hold on, though, are we shoveling dirt onto Volk’s grave a little prematurely? And with no obvious No. 1 contender, what’s the right next move for Topuria? Plus, Bobby Knuckles wins, Merab puts on a show and Mackenzie Dern continues to baffle us. Plus, presidential trivia! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alexander Volkanovski fully embraced his old man status headed into Saturday's UFC 298, in a legitimately hilarious internet video that showed off his stellar general acting chops and comedic timing. Still, that acceptance doesn't take away from the harrowing actual statistics about what happens to UFC champions after they turn 35. Add in recent concerns over his drinking habits between fights and our nagging memories of him getting KOed by Islam Makhachev his last time out and we are perhaps as nervous as we've ever been headed into a Volk fight. Plus, there is the matter of the weird confidence exuded by Ilia Topuria, who is either setting himself up for a fast rise or a big fall. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Got to admire Renato Moicano’s entrepreneurial spirit. Here’s “Money” Moicano nearly 10 years and 15 fights into his UFC career (he’s 18-5-1 as professional after Saturday’s win over Drew Dober) and it feels like he’s just now spreading his wings to show us the beautiful butterfly he’s become. And, friends, it is weird. After dusting Dober in the co-main event of the weekend’s Fight Night card, ya boi “Money” jumped on the mic and said, among other things, he was going to go home and impregnate his wife to try to keep up with his 62-year-old father (who himself just had a baby), that he wants to join the SWAT team to “kill bad guys,” and that if we don’t respect the law, America would become a “third world country.” So, yeah, it was a lot. Plus, Nassourdine Imavov wore Roman Dolidze around the cage like a hat and next week Joe BODYBAGZ Pyfer tries to become a capital G Guy against Singin' and Dancin' Jack Hermansson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was a triple-whammy announcement from Dana White last week, adding Kayla Harrison to UFC 300, giving her a fight with Holly Holm and having it at women's bantamweight. Clearly Harrison's involvement in the UFC's gala milestone pay-per-view is a big deal. But how big? Does she really deserve to be such an overwhelming favorite? And is she really going to make 135 pounds? We have questions. Plus, after saying what we were all thinking on his podcast last week, Jon Anik apologized if he offended anyone by being so dead-on right about what assholes they are. Was the apology really his idea? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dricus du Plessis beat Sean Strickland for the middleweight title, Raquel Pennington cashed-in on the women's bantamweight strap on her 18th fight in the UFC and the company announced Frankie Edgar was going in the hall of fame. We really wish that's what people were going to remember about UFC 297, but honestly? We'll probably remember it as an event where people said a bunch of dumb shit and then many of the reactions to that shit were even dumber. And that's sad, man. That's a sad place we've reached in this sport. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis are set to take it to the cage on Saturday at UFC 297, instead of fighting all over the damn arena like Mankind and HHH in 1997 or whatever. The champion probably still needs to prove to us that his win over Israel Adesanya last Sept. wasn't a fluke. Can a victory here do that? Meanwhile, DDP is out to show he can win a title in a third organization -- and that he can either stop Strickland quickly or withstand the champ's pressure style without gassing out over five rounds. Plus, it's Raquel Pennington vs. Mayra Bueno Silva for the vacant women's bantamweight title. Who knew?!? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Friends, the holiday doldrums are over and this weekend the UFC kicks off its sure to be relentless 2024 live event schedule with a rematch between Magomed Ankalaev and Johnny Walker. Maybe not the sexiest main event, but the card isn't too bad, all things considered. In addition to that, we take your listener mail questions, which piled up on us a bit during the break. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The last UFC event of 2023 left us with a lot to talk about. Leon Edwards and Alexandre Pantoja both successfully defended their titles. Up-and-comers Shavkat Rakhmonov and Paddy Pimblett got big wins. We saw at least one potential knockout of the year contender. Oh yeah, and Ian Garry, Sean Strickland and DDP all caused spectacles outside the cage. With Noted Fight Fans Kid Rock and Donald Trump sitting cageside, the whole thing was kind of a microcosm of what the UFC is all about right now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's been a year of upheaval in the UFC. All told, the company has crowned 11 champions in 2023--with UFC 296's twin-bill of title fights still on deck this Saturday. Can Colby Covington finally breakthrough and become undisputed welterweight champion with a win over Leon Edwards? Can Brandon Royval unseat newly-minted men's flyweight champ Alexandre Pantoja? Oddsmakers say these fights will be close. Will it continue to be a bad year for sitting champions? Plus, big fights for Shavkat Rakhmonov, Paddy Pimblett and Ian (whispers) MACHADO Garry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's possible there has never been a person better suited to bare knuckle boxing than Mike Perry. Here he was again last weekend against Eddie Alvarez, seeming to wager that he was willing to go out there and accept more punishment than the other guy in pursuit of something called the "King of Violence" belt--and he was right. Perry again emerged victorious after Alvarez's corner stopped the fight after the second round. All hail the king or whatever. Plus, Arman Tsarukyan looked dominant over Beneil Dariush and Bobby Green not so much against Jalin Turner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the heels of last week's PFL championships and in advance of this week's UFC Fight Night, we open it up to listener questions. What's at stake between Beneil Dariush and Arman Tsarukyan this weekend? Why don't we give Miesha Tate more credit as a pioneer of women's MMA? Is Stipe still relevant? And is PFL fumbling the bag? These topics and more from you, the beloved listeners of the CME. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices