The Co-main Event Podcast

At this point, you gotta admire Francis Ngannou's track record of doing exactly what the fuck he says he's going to do. He said he was going to wait out his UFC contract. He did that. He said he was going to sign a lucrative MMA deal that would include unprecedented gains for both himself and his opponents. He did that. He said he was going to sign a big-money boxing match against one of the world's best-known pugilists that would probably set him up for life. He. Fucking. Did. That. How can you not be happy for this guy? On this episode, we look forward to Ngannou vs. Tyson Fury, talk about Holly Holm's submission loss to Marya Bueno Silva and anticipate the return of Tom Aspinall. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Holy shit! If you happen to be an MMA fan who struggles with the current landscape of the UFC, Saturday's pay-per-view was a goddamn life-affirming breath of fresh air. UFC 290 was probably one of the company's all-time great PPV events. Alexander Volkanovski reaffirmed his greatness. Alexandre Pantoja won the men's flyweight title from Brandon Moreno in a fight-of-the-year caliber split decision. Robbie Lawler walked away in perfect style. DDP set up perhaps the cringiest middleweight title fight of all time against Israel Adesanya. Bo Nickal knocked a MFer out on the feet (!). It was wild, weird and sometimes wonderful. This is why we started watching this stuff in the first place. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's no real reason to believe Yair Rodriguez defeats Alexander Volkanovski in their men's featherweight title unification bout at UFC 290 this weekend. Volkanovski has been too good, he comes into this fight about a 4-to-1 favorite and the whole idea of making an interim title in this division was kinda bullshit from the beginning. But ... are the vibes a bit off for him leading up to this fight? We're not saying they are. We're merely asking questions. Plus, the rest of the UFC 290 card looks fun as hell. You got Brandon Moreno and Alexandre Pantoja doing the damn thing for the men's flyweight title You got Bobby Knuckles and DDP in a probable No. 1 contender fight. You got Robbie Lawler's alleged retirement fight. Oh, and there's this scrappy underdog you may have heard of ... Bo Nickal. He's on there too. Also, is it craaaaazy to consider Sean Strickland a viable title contender now? Probably. But still. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mere weeks after Dana White said the UFC "doesn't do" gimmick fights, he's all up in the media talking about trying to book an actual cagefight between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. First off, if you needed yet more evidence that White is frequently bullshitting us, well, there you go. Secondly, these rich nerds ain't really gonna fight each other. But wouldn't it be sad if they did? Also, Illia Topuria is super good at fighting. Like, super good. And the PFL puts its finger on the scales in the worst possible way. This episode is brought to you in part by NordVPN. Get your Exclusive NordVPN deal by going to nordvpn.com/comain or use the code comain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bellator staged the top MMA event of the weekend, with Sergio Pettis outdueling Patricio Pitbull in a compelling scrap for the men's bantamweight championship and light heavyweight titlist Vadim Nemkov reaffirming his greatness pitching a shutout against Yoel Romero. With both sides also confirming a Bellator-PFL merger is at least being explored, we'll take a look at what that might mean for combat sports. Plus, Jared Cannonier set a middleweight record for significant strikes in his decision victory over Marvin Vettori. Is that another one of this double-edged sword UFC records? This episode is brought to you in part by NordVPN. Get your Exclusive NordVPN deal by going to nordvpn.com/comain or use the code comain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda Nunes pretty much whooped-up on Irene Aldana to retain her women's bantamweight title and then retired in the cage, which was a nice moment. Canadian fighters went undefeated in front of their home countrymen in Vancouver, which obviously was a feel-good story. But you know who really stamped their name on UFC 289 on Saturday? Charles Oliveira, that's who. Oliveira went out there and spoiled Beneil Dariush's big chance at lightweight contendership by dominating on the ground and on the feet en route to a first-round victory -- and he did so while being hailed as a hero by the Canadian fans. This seemed like the kind of performance that could well net him a rematch with Islam Makhachev and also one that confirmed he's a pretty big star for the UFC. This episode is brought to you in part by NordVPN. Get your Exclusive NordVPN deal by going to nordvpn.com/comain or use the code comain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda Nunes returns Saturday to defend her women's bantamweight title against Irene Aldana at UFC 289. Should be a solid little scrap, though we're not sure there's any reason to suspect Nunes might lose ... except, well, she is 36 years old, recently left American Top Team to start her own gym and has been openly talking about retirement since her feud with Juliana Pena. So, can Aldana pull the upset here and is there any chance this is the last ride for The Lioness? Plus, Dana White reminds us Jared Gordon is not a doctor and did Kai Kara France get screwed? This episode is brought to you in part by NordVPN. Get your Exclusive NordVPN deal by going to nordvpn.com/comain or use the code comain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conor McGregor is "filling out the paperwork" to re-enroll in the USADA testing pool, according to Dana White, which means the biggest star in MMA is back! Almost? Maybe? Remains to seen. Despite the lingering uncertainty, it's clear at least one group of people is VERY glad to have McGregor in their lives again. Those people are the keepers of the MMA news cycle. McGregor hasn't totally done anything yet upon his return to active duty and somehow every other story on the websites is already about him. We talk the McGregor Phenomenon this week. Plus, UFC on ESPN rolls out this weekend and Justin Gaethje says what we're all thinking about the BMF title. This episode is brought to you in part by NordVPN. Get your Exclusive NordVPN deal by going to nordvpn.com/comain or use the code comain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bloody Elbow's John Nash has a new report out on the UFC's finances and, friends, it is mind-blowing. Once again in 2022, the fight company made more than $1 billion in revenue and, largely because it didn't have to pay superstars like Conor McGregor last year, total fighter pay dropped by around $32.8 million (to roughly 13 percent of total revenue). UFC profits were up in every category, while expenses and operating costs were down. So ... wow. Plus, Mackenzie Dern went beast mode on Angela Hill and Dana White says he doesn't understand Francis Ngannou's new deal with PFL. This episode is brought to you in part by NordVPN. Get your Exclusive NordVPN deal by going to nordvpn.com/comain or use the code comain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joe Rogan said some fairly innocuous stuff this week about what would happen in a street fight (or a locked-room fight, as the case may be) between Jon Jones and Tyson Fury. Fury did not appreciate Rogan's opinion and aired his displeasure on social media, and THAT essentially kicked off a round robin of internet beef between Jones, Fury and Francis Ngannou. It was, honestly, pretty ridiculous. So, this week we discuss: Why did it make Fury so mad when Rogan was really only repeating an argument MMA guys have been making since the '90s? If no other important boxers will fight him (as he claims) why doesn't Fury get something on the books with Ngannou? And doesn't Jones appreciate the irony of talking shit to Ngannou when Jones himself was embroiled in a contract dispute of his own with the UFC recently? Plus, in Power Rankings, the Conor McGregor reputational whitewash has begun, Alex Pereira vs. Janny Blackjacks (?!?!?!), and there are a lot of interesting personal style choices going on at this BKFC weigh-i

This week, Friend of the Podcast and Real Life Hollywood TV Writer Kevin Seccia was kind enough to come in off the picket line to talk us through the particulars of the ongoing WGA writers strike. Kevin is a great dude as well as an active patron of the CME. He's also former standup comedian and currently a writer on the animated comedy "The Great North," which airs on Fox. The WGA strikes is something we've all heard about but perhaps few of us know the details of what's really going on. Kevin does a great job bringing us all up to speed with the style and humor befitting a longtime CME listener. Plus, in Kraken Up, well, it's over. Seattle sailed into the dark waters of the off-season this week, after dropping game seven to the Stars. Season wrap-up incoming! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rumor has it, there was some news this week. Just a lil bit. Just a lil bit of news happened over the last couple of days. As you may have heard, the biggest of homies, Francis Ngannou, announced on Tuesday that he is taking his talents to the PFL (and perhaps elsewhere) in a landmark deal that affords him what is almost certainly more money than if he'd stayed in the UFC as well as most of his out-of-the-cage asks, including the ability to go do boxing if he wants. So that's seems good. Not to be outdone, however, the UFC -- totally randomly and definitely NOT related to Ngannou's announcement -- went ahead with a big Tuesday afternoon news dump of their own which included, among other things, BRINGING BACK THE BMF TITLE. Lol. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What a tease this guy, Big Fran is. Here he is posting this video to his socials last week promising us that on Tuesday he's going to tells us (what we hope is) his final decision on free agency. We're not sure what he's going to say -- Will it be a boxing announcement? Will it be MMA? -- but that sure won't stop us from wildly and irresponsibly speculating. Plus, Jailton Almeida tapped the Bigi Boy, Matt Brown had a record night and Ian Garry continues to be a problem. This episode is brought to you in part by NordVPN. Get your Exclusive NordVPN deal by going to nordvpn.com/comain or use the code comain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jailton Almeida isn't keeping his gameplan too close to the vest when it comes to this weekend's UFC on ABC main event against Jairzinho Rozenstruik. The fast-rising heavyweight prospect says he's strong where the Bigi Boy is weak, and plans to take him down and submit him. That's no surprise, considering six of Almeida's last 10 wins have come via sub. On the other hand, Rozenstruik has never been submitted. And you could argue HE is also strong where Almeida is weak. So, what if Almeida can't take him down? Plus, in Power Rankings, GSP says the UFC didn't have his back on drug testing, Dominick Cruz will cut a bitch (because he says the rules force him to), and Nate Diaz finds out Texas might test him for weed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Economist published an interesting feature story about how UFC veterans Abu and Ottman Azaitar -- who you may remember from that UFC 257 fiasco involving an alleged "bagful of potatoes" -- have parlayed a friendship with the 58-year-old king of Morocco into pretty sweet lives for themselves. To hear the article tell it, King Mohammed VI (who was never that into ruling, anyway) has become completely disinterested in running Morocco and only wants to hang out, travel the world and party with the Azaitar brothers. Abu and Ottman, for their parts, appear to be making the most of the money, power and influence that come along with being the king's besties. They have access to sports cars, private jets, military aircraft (!) and apparently whatever else they want. So, now the people of Morocco are sitting around wondering where the king at and also if the rest of the Moroccan government might do something about it. Plus, in Kraken Up, we await game five in Dallas, with the Kraken and Stars tied 2-2. Here's the

It's pledge month at the Co-Main Event Podcast. As a totally independently produced podcast, we rely on the generosity of listeners like you to keep this thing rolling. Here's a free sample of our weekly Wednesday Live Chat, where we spend an hour (usually a little longer) taking questions from our beloved patrons. If you like what you hear, consider joining us at: https://www.patreon.com/comainevent Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You know how some fight cards that look pretty "meh" on paper turn out to be unexpectedly great? Yeah, UFC 288 wasn't really one of those. Headlined by an important but perhaps not best-selling men's bantamweight title fight between Aljamain Sterling and Henry Cejudo, this one didn't really appear to live up to the high standards set by some of the UFC's other PPVs this year. There was nothing wrong with Sterling's unanimous decision win over Cejudo and there was nothing wrong with Belal Muhammad's UD over Gilbert Burns. But this card didn't blow our hair back and these wins probably aren't going to get Sterling and Muhammad the respect they deserve. Speaking of not getting the respect he deserves, Demetrious Johnson looked as good as ever in (yet another kinda nondescript) unanimous decision win over Adriano Moraes in One Championship. Johnson took the trilogy and was Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's not every weekend that the eyes of the combat sports world fall squarely on BKFC, but with the UFC giving new meaning to the term Just Some Fights and no other MMA to speak of, that was the case on Saturday. A bevy of recognizable names -- Mike Perry, Luke Rockhold, Eddie Alvarez, heck, even Conor McGregor -- essentially made this BKFC's Super Bowl. Both for better and for worse. Plus, with UFC 288 right around the corner, we look at the main event and co-main at that pay-per-view. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the heavyweight elite, Sergei Pavlovich. Ya boy went out there and starched Curtis Blaydes in just over three minutes on Saturday at a UFC Fight Night event to become the consensus No. 1 contender in the heavyweight division. Could a lot go wrong between now and when Pavlovich might conceivably fight the winner of Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic? Sure. Did Blaydes engage in kind of a bizarre strategy in this fight? Yes, he did. But is Pavlovich now arguably the most interesting figure in the 265-pound division outside of JBJ and Stipe? Undoubtedly. Plus, Bellator had a pretty good two-night stop in Hawaii, Nate Diaz fought some jabronis on the streets of New Orleans and Bobby Green had a pretty bad Saturday night. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You think the UFC will stop sending its top men's featherweight prospects to Max Holloway? Because so far when they do, all they get back is a box of bones. Holloway continued his up-and-comer ass-whipping tour on Saturday, dispatching Arnold Allen via unanimous decision in the pair's UFC Fight Night main event. This fight was 95 percent Holloway stylin' on Allen with his speed, pressure game and counter-punches and five percent Holloway eating Allen's hardest shots and walking right through them like a man out on a Sunday stroll. So, your basic Max Holloway shit, in other words. Plus, Nate Diaz is gonna fight Jake Paul in a boxing match at 185 pounds. What could go wrong? And Jon Jones teased us with retirement, while the UFC lines up a potential No. 1 contender fight between Sergei Pavlovich and Curtis Blaydes. This episode is brought to you in part by NordVPN. Get your Exclusive NordVPN deal by going to nordvpn.com/comain or use the code comain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice