The Co-main Event Podcast

So, Jon Jones is out. Like, OUT out. As in Jon Jones is retired. Or … should we say … “retired,” because ain’t nobody thinks we’ve seen the last of this dude in a cage, a ring, or a dusty circle of dirt at some county fairgrounds. In any case, Jones’ career ended (for now) the way all the great ones go out — with Dana White making a halfhearted announcement at the postfight press conference for UFC: Baku. Oh, and Jones has once again been charged with a crime — this one stemming from a February incident where he (you’re never going to believe this) allegedly left the scene of an early morning car accident. And then maybe threatened to have some police officers killed? So basically, he’s just out here living his best life, monetizing this amazing brand he’s built. Anyway, Tom Aspinall is champ now. So that’s … good? As if that wasn’t enough, UFC 317 is this weekend, and Ilia Topuria is more than a 4-to-1 favorite over Charles Oliveira. What??? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So, there’s still some fight left in this old dog, Kamaru Usman — as Joaquin Buckley found out the hard way in their UFC Fight Night main event on Saturday. The 38-year-old Usman defied the odds and many expectations with a vintage performance that saw him use the ol’ wrestling game to take a unanimous decision over the seemingly incredibly ill-prepared up-and-comer. Then Usman got on the mic and hilariously called for a title shot. Yeah … no … that’s not going to happen. At least not yet. Usman may have shown he was as good once as he ever was, but can he keep it going long enough to get back in the mix? Plus, was Dom Cruz right? Did Buckley somehow fail to adequately train … for Usman’s … wrestling? Because THAT would be an oversight. And did Rodolfo Bellato pull off the biggest flop job in MMA history? This weekend the UFC is off to — pulls out spelling dictionary — Baku, Azerbaijan, which seems like the most obvious cash grab we’ve seen in some time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit mega

Not sure how you’re supposed to beat this guy Merab Dvalishvili at this point. Poison? Blow darts? The Dark Arts? Regular-ass fighting ain’t working, as Sean O’Malley found out at UFC 316 on Saturday. Looked like O’Malley was trying to do the right things — stay off the cage, work the body, show improved takedown defense, get up when Merab put him on the mat. Didn’t matter. Merab is just too good at what he does … and it seems like he’s getting better at it. If he’s gonna start throwing out nasty submissions now? Fuck it, shut it down. And then we gotta show Cory Sandhagen standing in the crowd looking like a middle school kid tryna act tough? Yeah, we're not loving that guy’s chances. Plus, Kayla Harrison vs. Amanda Nunes? Give it to me, it’s mine! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The odds don’t look very competitive headed into the dueling title fights atop Saturday’s UFC 316. Merab Dvalishvili and Kayla Harrison are both pretty big favorites over their opponents (challenger Sean O’Malley and chalmpion Julianna Peña, respectively). The line on Harrison, in fact, is outlandish — though that fight is admittedly most interesting because of what a Kayla Harrison title reign might look like at women’s bantamweight, not necessarily because we expect it to be close. As for O’Malley, is there anything he can do differently against Merab this time around? Aside from not J’ing the peen? Also, Maycee Barber couldn’t make the walk last weekend. In and of itself, that doesn’t seem like a HUGE deal. Buuuuut … is it indicative of larger, more dire issues with the UFC right now? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The CME’s 13th birthday is coming up, and you know what that means: it’s pledge month! Now through June 1, get 50% off a new monthly or annual Patreon subscription when you use the code CME13 at checkout! Get on it! Join the team! Support the community! Stick it to the man! Merab Dvalishvili broke his toe on the dome of a training partner this week, which seems like poor timing, considering his men’s bantamweight title defense against Sean O’Malley is coming right up at UFC 316 on June 7. When your game plan hinges at least partially on your unstoppable takedowns, that seems like it could potentially be a big deal. No worries, though. The always irrepressible Merab points out that he’s got nine more toes, so if he needs to cut this one off in order to fight O’Malley, so be it. For O’Malley, did foot stomps just become a big part of the strategy? Plus, Vitor Belfort is going in the hall, Nate Diaz is back in the news and is the MMA world ready for Ciryl Gane — leading man? Learn more about your ad choices

The CME’s 13th birthday is this month, and you know what that means: It’s pledge month! Now through June 1, GET 50% OFF A NEW MONTHLY OR ANNUAL PATREON SUBSCRIPTION when you use the code CME13 at checkout! Get on it! Join the team! Support the community! Stick it to the man! First you've got Jon Jones riding on the back of a motorbike looking zooted out of his gourd over there in Thailand. Then you’ve got Jones riding his own motorbike, saying he’s “living his best life” on Instagram Live while zigzagging around parked cars. Now you’ve got Jones replying to random dudes on Twitter (like he does) about how much he doesn’t care about potentially getting stripped of the UFC heavyweight title (sure, Jon), and declaring he “told the UFC about his plans” a long time ago. All Jones cares about now, he says, is monetizing the brand he’s built — which … I mean … isn’t the Jon Jones Brand shooting your gun off outside the strip club and having car wrecks with pregnant ladies? How exactly is he “monetizing” that “bran

The CME’s 13th birthday is coming up, and you know what that means: It’s pledge month! Now through June 1, GET 50% OFF A NEW MONTHLY OR ANNUAL PATREON SUBSCRIPTION when you use the code CME13 at checkout! Get on it! Join the team! Support the community! Stick it to the man! Did Jack Della Maddalena ruin everything? Well, it’s a fluid situation. As we recorded this episode of the Proper, the MMA world awaited an announcement from Dana White we all assume(d) will be the main event of UFC 317 coming up in June for International Fight Week. What will we get? Ilia Topuria vs. Islam Makhachev? Or Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira? By the time you listen to this, you might well know the answer. It’s possible that Della Maddalena’s welterweight title win over Belal Muhammad at last weekend’s UFC 315 will tip a succession of dominoes that could result in Makhachev moving up to 170 pounds to fight JDM, which would leave Topuria to fight Oliveira. And let's be honest, that would kinda suck. It was a brilliant performance

The CME’s 13th birthday is coming up, and you know what that means: It’s pledge month! Now through June 1, GET 50% OFF A NEW MONTHLY OR ANNUAL PATREON SUBSCRIPTION when you use the code CME13 at checkout! Get on it! Join the team! Support the community! Stick it to the man! Belal Muhammad said he doesn’t care what you think anymore. He knows he’s good, even if you don’t. Well, I mean, yeah, he is the UFC welterweight champion, so there is some evidence to suggest he’s pretty good. Somehow, though, it still feels like there are constantly a lot of doubts. You doubt he’ll win his next fight. You doubt it’ll be exciting, if he does. You doubt he’ll sell many PPVs, you doubt he’ll get in the UFC’s good graces, you doubt he’ll hang onto that belt for long … and on and on and on … So far, for the most part, he’s proved you wrong. Still, that makes this weekend’s title defense at UFC 315 against Jack Della Maddalena all the more important. It’s the first time in a long while that Belal isn’t the underdog. So … got

The CME’s 13th birthday is coming up, and you know what that means: It’s pledge month! Now through June 1, GET 50% OFF A NEW MONTHLY OR ANNUAL PATREON SUBSCRIPTION when you use the code CME13 at checkout! Get on it! Join the team! Support the community! Stick it to the man! Ya boi Ian (Machado) Garry commands a lot of attention in MMA. If the most difficult thing a UFC fighter can do in the year of our lord 2025 is make people care about your fights, well, Garry's got that part down. Take Saturday’s scrap with Carlos Prates, for example. What otherwise might have been a fairly run-of-the-mill Fight Night main event felt like appointment viewing with Garry and Prates involved. As it turned out, it was pretty much a cakewalk for Garry … except those last five minutes. Plus, Anthony Smith had the classiest retirement possible when you’re bathed in your own blood and flipping off some rando in the crowd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The two-night extravaganza that was Wrestlemania 41 went down over the weekend in Las Vegas, much to the delight and consternation of marks and smarks everywhere. Yeah, yeah, we know the CME ain’t a rasslin’ podcast, but one thing caught our attention that may be of interest to the combat sports audience: Dana White got booed. Yep. They showed Dana White on the broadcast and on the big screen inside Allegiant Stadium, and they booed that man. Twice! In his hometown! And the face Dana made as it was happening? Clearly a guy who didn’t love that it was happening, but was trying to be cool about it. So, what gives? Dana White is used to being received as the conquering hero and No. 1 big swinging dick by MMA crowds. And yet here he is at Wrestlemania — probably doing a solid for the TKO brass just by showing up — and the live crowd ain’t having it. What, if anything, does this tell us about the difference between the UFC audience and the WWE audience? Plus, the Netflix CEO doesn’t sound OVERLY thrilled about t

Your boy Alexander Volkanovski is champion again, besting a fairly valiant effort by Diego Lopes at UFC 314 Saturday to claim the vacant UFC featherweight title. Volk looked pretty good, too, beating Lopes at range and mixing up the takedown attempts en route to the unanimous decision win. For The Fall Out Boy, well, it seemed like he just got started too late — spent too much time fighting Volk’s fight early on. Maybe if this one had been eight rounds instead of five, things might have been different. Alas. Wait, though. Now that Volk’s 36 and has already defeated most of the bankable top contenders in the division, what’s left for him to do? Is he really gonna fight Movsar Evloev? That seems … anticlimactic. Plus, Paddy Pimblett beat the shit out of Michael Chandler … and other listener mail questions! Also, right now through May 1, get 15% off a VOLKAMANIA T-shirt by using the discount code VOLKBACK at: https://comaineventshop.bigcartel.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Look, we’re just being honest. After back-to-back KO losses to Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria, and a 1-3 record dating back to 2023, we couldn’t help but wonder if we’d already seen the best of Alexander Volkanovski. Then, lo and behold, Topuria moves up to lightweight, and suddenly Volk is right back in the mix — going off as a slight betting favorite against Diego Lopes in their 145-pound title unification bout at UFC 314. And yet, the former champ is 36 … and we all know what happens to guys in these lighter weight classes once they hit 35. So we’ve gotta ask: How long can Volkamania really be expected to run wild? Oh, and Michael Chandler vs. Paddy Pimblett? Yeesh. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joe Pyfer got food poisoning — or maybe it was altitude sickness — and now he’s, like, furious. He had to call off his fight with Kelvin Gastelum because his tum-tum hurt, and he’s pissed that he slept in a tent on the floor for nothing. In a tent! On the floor! Obviously, this is Mexico’s fault. It’s a shithole, Joe Pyfer says. Joe Pyfer is never going back to Mexico. Mexico can suck Joe Pyfer’s balls. Literally. Hey, you know who didn’t call off her fight because she had the tummy troubles? Loopy Godinez. Loopy Godinez just went out there and defeated Julia Polastri and diarrhea all in one night— and she didn’t even tell any nations of 130 million people to suck her balls. Though she did tell her corner that she had to poop. God, what a stupid sport. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Big Tommy Gas Hands brought his rubber ducky to UFC London. See what he did there? That’s a little elbow to the ribs of Jon Jones, who we know Aspinall has been chasing all over God’s green earth trying to get a shot at unifying the heavyweight title. That’s got to be frustrating. Weirdly, however, Aspinall emerged from a meeting with UFC brass last week saying he was excited, that he felt great, that “big announcements” are coming soon. Yet, he also didn’t specifically say those big announcements had anything to do with Jones. So, is he just messing with us, or is something else on the horizon? Plus, Sean Brady jumped up four spots to No. 1-contender status on the UFC’s official welterweight rankings after defeating Leon Edwards. Yes, you read that correctly. Brady now officially outranks THAT BOOT GOOD. SAY WHAT??? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If we told you going into UFC 313 that Magomed Ankalaev would go 0-for-12 on takedown attempts in his light heavyweight title fight against Alex Pereira, would you have thought that shaped up as a win for Ankalaev? Yeah, we wouldn’t either. That’s what happened, however, with Ankalaev using a surprisingly effective striking attack coupled with a suffocating clinch game to take the strap from Poatan. And look, we get it. Everybody loves Pereira. We do, too. Literally nobody (besides his friends and family) is excited for the Ankalaev Era. But was Ankalaev’s performance really as boring as some people are saying? Or is that just our sadness about Pereira getting the best of us? Plus, Dana White says a rematch is probably next for both guys. Is it, though? And we all know Justin Gaethje’s got that dog in him, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that he’s also really, really, really good. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What’s the worst kind of fight? A tough-ass matchup against an opponent nobody cares about. That’s exactly what Pereira has on his hands against Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313 on Saturday, so much so that everybody involved (except Ankalaev) appeared put it off as long as they possibly could. But, here’s Poatan, at 37 and sitting on the brink of cleaning out the light heavyweight division, facing his fourth fight in just under 12 months against the man some say shapes up as his stiffest test at 205. Ain’t that just the way? Plus, Rafael Fiziev seemed to surprise even himself by getting the call to step in for Dan Hooker in the co-main event fight against Justin Gaethje.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doesn’t Henry Cejudo know that when somebody tries to go full Moe Howard on you (looking in your direction Song Yadong) all you gotta do is throw the hand up in front of your face to block it? Guess he missed that day in Greatest Combat Sports Athlete of All Time School. We kid, obviously. Still, though, shoutout to Cejudo, Song and Jason Herzog for reminding us this week that sometimes the shortest distance between you and winning the fight is just to gouge your opponent’s eyes out. Plus, a ton of fight booking news! Topuria goes up! Hooker drops out! Volko and The Fallout Boy are in! That Boy Good can’t go! Muhammad gets Jackie Flat Nose! Oh, what a rush. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Would somebody please get this goddamn Jon Jones a hobby already? You can just about set your watch to this shit. Give Jones a fight, give him something to train for, some structure, some direction in his life, and it seems like this man is unstoppable. Give him like EVEN ONE SECOND of downtime and he’s liable to get intoxicated and film an Instagram live video about how he wants to kill somebody. WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT HE DID OVER THE WEEKEND. Who was Jones talking about? What precipitated this behavior? Was he speaking literally or figuratively? And WHY ON EARTH would he FILM this shit on Instagram? In other news, Jared Cannonier refused to go quietly into the domain of the gatekeeper and stepping stone and, you know what, fucking good on him. Also, Henry Cejudo and Song Yadong are gonna mix it up in Seattle this weekend and the oddsmakers don’t LOVE Henry’s chances. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UFC 312 seemed to signal a community-wide awakening on Sean Strickland. After watching him go out with a whimper against Dricus Du Plessis (again!) it felt like everybody had kind of had enough of his bullshit. Sure, the visionaries on this podcast have been saying for AWHILE that what Strickland advertises prefight (a bloodthirsty maniac!) is quite different than what you actually get inside the cage (a careful point fighter, who came into this bout apparently having made like ZERO adjustments). After this one, however, it felt like fans knew it, other fighters knew it and even his own corner sort of seemed to know it. So, that feels like curtains for ya boi Sean. The irony is, of course, that Strickland actually DOES feel like a psychopathic lunatic in all other aspects of his life. Just ... not when he's fighting. Plus, damn you can't doubt DDP anymore. Except in his next fight against Khamzat Chimaev ... surely he'll lose that one ... right? Also, are Dana White and Ari Emanuel about to try to "fix" boxin

Sure, Dricus du Plessis’ middleweight championship win over Sean Strickland back at UFC 297 was a close one. Split decision. Could’ve gone either way, maybe. But, be honest, were any of us really sitting around trying to quench an unquenchable thirst to see them run it back? No. Nobody had that thirst. Nobody except one man. Unfortunately, it was the one man who makes all the decisions, so … here we are. Plus, Zhang Weili and Tatiana Suarez seems like a pretty compelling fight, actually. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices