The Co-Main Event MMA Podcast

Episodes

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  Episode 706: What’s hugs got to do with it? 18.08.2026 57m

  Is that a Tina Turner reference in the title of this week’s episode? Shut up, don’t worry about it. Anyway, Ian Machado Garry couldn’t quite get it done against Islam Makhachev over the weekend at UFC 330. Garry did a decent job getting up from the takedowns and, as the fight wore on, it actually seemed like Makhachev was the one who got ti-red. But Makhachev had the fight’s biggest moment — kicking Garry in his damn face during the second round — and otherwise was able to salt away the victory with his stifling (if not particularly dangerous) ground game. Could Garry have won it down the stretch if he showed a bit more “killer instinct,” as many (read: Dana White) are saying? Did the fact that he seemed to offer Makhachev head pats and bro hugs between nearly every round reveal something lacking in Garry’s ability to get mean enough to close the show? Is he too SAWFT to be a UFC champ? I mean, surely that’s bullshit, but we discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 705: Any chance it goes bad for Makhachev at UFC 330? 10.08.2026 1h 1m

  Is there any chance at all that we’re all sitting here next Monday saying, “Well, yeah, it’s obvious in retrospect that Islam Makhachev might struggle with Ian Garry. This was only Makhachev’s second fight at welterweight, after all. Garry is so long and rangy. If he was able to stop the takedowns, it was always gonna be a problem. They have weight classes for a reason, I guess. Also, ain’t that just the way, when it comes to these so-called unbeatable champions?” Any chance at all? Nah, probably not. But you can’t blame a couple of guys who’ve been meeting here every week to break down the action for 14 YEARS for not at least asking the question. If for no other reason than to keep ourselves occupied. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 704: UFC ain’t sweatin’ no MVP MMA! (Are they though?) 03.08.2026 56m

  “We’re in a whole other fucking stratosphere now. I mean, I’m competing with all the majors. Those guys aren’t my competition. So good luck to them all. I wish them all the best.” That’s ya boi Dana White talking to the media about last week’s news of Jake Paul and Nikisa Bidarian’s Most Valuable Promotions absorbing the PFL to create the world’s second-largest MMA promotion. No big deal, he says. And maybe Dana White is telling the truth. The UFC is in another fucking stratosphere now from anybody we’ve previously seen try their hand at MMA promotion. Except ... hold on now ... if the UFC ain’t sweatin’ MVP, why’d they recently run out real quick and re-sign Robelis Despaigne and Salahdine Parnasse, effectively stealing away two of MVP's potential stars? And why is Dana White mischievously sending out smiley-face emojis when asked about brand-new free agent Usman Nurmagomedov? Does that seem like a man comfortably in another fucking stratosphere than his opponents? We discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 703: It’s the dog days of MMA summer 27.07.2026 58m

  Just a few months ago, it seemed like we had a lot to look forward to in MMA. You had Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano set to do the damn thing in MVP’s inaugural event. You had the UFC getting ready to go big at the White House. You even had the much-anticipated, loooooooong-awaited return of Conor McGregor. Today? Well, you’ve got Islam Makhachev vs. Ian (whispers: Machado) Garry and Mackenzie Dern vs. Gillian Robertson coming up in mid-August but, other than that, there’s just not a lot on the schedule. Last weekend, Magomed Ankalaev went out there and did Magomed Ankalaev stuff (which is to say, not much) to score a potentially meaningless win over Bogdan Guskov (who did even less!). Next week, you’ve got Uroš Medić vs. Daniel Rodriguez and the week after that it’s Mateusz Gamrot vs. Quillan Salkilld. So, this episode we discuss being mired in the dog days of MMA summer and what we might have to look forward to coming up in the fall and winter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 702: Conor McGregor injury update + DDP wins! 20.07.2026 1h 1m

  Well, turns out Conor McGregor blew out both his ACL and meniscus when he tried to do that flying kick against Max Holloway at UFC 329. Pretty much broke his whole shit, which means he’s probably out until at least next summer. As Dana White is quick to point out to everybody who has asked, Conor’s knee is so “fucked up” (his words) that it’s not even really worthwhile discussing what might be next for him until he’s healed up and ready to go again. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Conor has decided it was actually GOOD that he destroyed his knee and lost to Max because, had he won, something much worse might have happened. No, we are not kidding you. Plus, Dricus du Plessis did pretty much what we thought he would do to Kamaru Usman en route to a unanimous decision victory Saturday at UFC Fight Night in Oklahoma City. Maybe the biggest surprise was it didn’t seem like it was Usman’s knees that cost him the fight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 701: Conor's cooked 13.07.2026 1h 5m

  Things did not go well for ya boi Conor McGregor in his big return fight against Max Holloway at UFC 329 on Saturday. “Fight,” in fact, is probably too strong a word for what happened, after McGregor led off by sprinting across the cage, trying to throw a leaping kick at Holloway’s head and ended up blowing out his own knee on re-entry. Cue the sad trombone for the Notorious One. It goes without saying that this, at 37 years old, after already coming off a serious leg injury and five years of very ugly personal behavior away from the cage, casts serious doubt on McGregor’s fighting future. And you know what? Maybe that’s a good thing. This week we discuss all things McGregor, including the steroid scandal and sexual assault verdict nobody wanted to talk about during fight week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 700: Conor McGregor’s UFC 329 return raises so many questions 07.07.2026 59m

  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 for the first time in more than 1,000 days, let’s just say there are questions. Holloway seems like a bad stylistic matchup for McGregor under the best of circumstances. Will Conor show ring rust? Will he show the desire? Will he have evolved at all? Or will he show up looking like a 37-year-old guy coming off a major injury whose life has skittered into a tailspin due entirely to his own horrific actions? Keep in mind, he didn’t look great BEFORE the broken leg and becoming an adjudicated rapist. We discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 699: It’s the UFC’s ‘Year of the Unc’ 29.06.2026 1h 2m

  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 UFC’s Year of the Unc. But what's really goin' on here? Fighters aging better? The move away from USADA 👀? No decent young athletes want to get into this sport anymore? We discuss. Plus, how does the Paramount+ app suck so bad yet still somehow be better than ESPN+? And y’all see Rafael Fiziev kick that dude upside his head? Dang. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 698: UFC’s Meta AI rankings are out! 22.06.2026 1h 5m

  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 machine learning with the deep domain expertise of the UFC” to tell us who’s hot and who’s not. It will evaluate “a comprehensive set of objective metrics, including outcome probability, win type, fighter trajectory, and weight-class sensitivities.” So, thank God that’s crystal clear and fixed forever. Plus, we got mail about Conor McGregor’s return! And the UFC didn’t exactly get those Super Bowl numbers they were hoping for at the White House. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 697: UFC’s White House show could’ve been worse, we guess 15.06.2026 1h 3m

  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. President,” or bring the special little guy into the cage to give him a championship belt. Then again, if “it could have been worse” is our metric for success, well, that says it all, doesn’t it? There were good parts and bad parts of UFC Free Dumb 250, is what we’re saying. This shit looked great on TV. The UFC’s live event production team remains elite. The Marine Corps band absolutely crushed it all night. The fights themselves trended from pretty good to all time-great. A bunch of the other stuff was bad, though. AI slop during the story of America? Bad. Josh Hokit on the mic? Fucking terrible. Using this event as the public-facing element of UFC ownership’s efforts to cuddle up even further with this presidential administration? Yep, still bad! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 696: Trump’s Big Boy Birthday Bash 09.06.2026 1h 4m

  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 actual fights. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 695: Is this a make-or-break summer for the UFC? 01.06.2026 1h 3m

  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 significant portion of UFC fans lately. Does summer 2026 shape up as a make-or-break season for the UFC? And if so, will the guys who own the company even notice? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 694: Dana White makes the (actual) media rounds 26.05.2026 1h 2m

  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 time at all talking about the actual fights or the fighters. No surprise there. But, wait, did Dana seriously just find out THIS WEEK during his talk with New Yorker editor David Remnick that there had previously been sexual abuse allegations against Michael Jackson? That might be the wildest part of this whole thing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 693: Really, Gina? Breaking down MVP’s first MMA event 19.05.2026 1h 5m

  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-ballyhooed main event between Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano? Hoo boy. We kinda knew it was going to be bad, but we didn’t know it was gonna be THAT bad. But perhaps what mattered more than the outcome of the actual fights was the event itself. A lot of people seemed to watch, and while the live broadcast was certainly not without its flaws, it also wasn’t terrible. Dare we say it suggests MVP MMA has a positive future? You know, if they ever want to do another show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 692: Is Sean Strickland UFC’s best worst fighter? 12.05.2026 1h 7m

  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 seen in a long time, following up an absolutely dominant first round with a disastrous second round before bouncing back to spend the rest of the fight failing to utilize his best skills. Anyway, Strickland is now a two-time, two-time UFC champion, which leaves us all at a bit of a loss about how to even think about the guy. Now, Joshua Van and Tatsuro Taira? That was a fight. That was a fight right there. Plus, Ronda Rousey is gonna fight Gina Carano at MVP this weekend on Netflix. We’re gonna watch. Are you? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 691: Sean Strickland stays strapped at UFC 328 05.05.2026 1h 5m

  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 champion Khamzat Chimaev if Chimaev should try any shady shit outside the cage. For Strickland, it’s probably either that (commit cold-blooded, premeditated murder) or attempt to jab his way to a professional but underwhelming unanimous decision victory while trying not to let Chimaev crush his fucking face like he did Bobby Knuckles. Look, we’re not saying Strickland is the UFC’s answer to Travis Bickle from “Taxi Driver,” but we’re not NOT saying that either. Plus, Carlos Prates did terrible things to Jack Della Maddalena. Were they terrible enough to cut the line for a welterweight title shot? And could we be witnessing the emergence of the THIRD kind of UFC heavyweight division? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 690: Can JDM recapture … whatever he had? 28.04.2026 1h 5m

  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 for a Fight Night main event in what promises to be a good-ass scrap with Carlos Prates. If you’re Jackie Flat Nose here, this seems like one you want to win in order to preserve … your status as an elite welterweight? Your good name? Any chance of ever working your way back into a title fight? Something or other. Plus, Aljamain Sterling refuses to give the UFC what it wants. And Tai Tuivasa is *rubs eyes in disbelief* a FAVORITE this weekend?!?! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 689: TKO loves money, hates fun 21.04.2026 1h 8m

  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 of both these products on some soulless cash-grab shit, without any thought for the future, and where the only barometer for how things are going is how much money the already super-rich ownership group can shove in their pockets. But, you know, who are we to judge? We’re just the people whose money that is. Plus, Brock Lesnar left his gloves in the ring at WM42. That could be a wrap for The Beast. And does Mike Malott need the help of CME Consulting Services? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 688: UFC 327 was wild (some might say wooly) 15.04.2026 1h 4m

  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 hook. That doesn’t totally feel fair to Ulberg (winning the belt on one bum wheel should probably earn you more credit) but also, yeah, he’s clearly hurt and even as we speak Dana White is almost certainly sticking the “Interim Title Fight” magnet to that big whiteboard on the wall of his war room. Plus, Cub Swanson got the rare storybook ending and, sigh, seems like Josh Hokit is totally a thing now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Episode 687: LHW tries to reinvent itself yet again at UFC 327 07.04.2026 1h 1m

  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’ recidivist-ass messed around and left the sport. And now, this weekend, Jiri P. and Carlos Ulberg are gonna go out there at UFC 327 and see if we can’t reinvent this division one more time. Are either of them up for it? Time will tell. Oh, and speaking of Jones, what’s he up to these days … oh, right, getting involved in petty road rage incidents in ABQ. Perfect. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices