PODCAST · sports
The Co-Main Event MMA Podcast
by Chad Dundas and Ben Fowlkes
An irreverent and unscripted look at the week's mixed martial arts news from longtime MMA journalists Ben Fowlkes and Chad Dundas. Topics include the latest happenings in the UFC, Bellator and other promotions.
Episodes
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Episode 710: The Tom Aspinall Era is over … at least for now
The heavyweight title reign of Big Tommy Gas Hands Aspinall came to an end this week, with Aspinall vacating the title because he still can’t get a doctor to sign off on him participating in a cage fight. So, that sucks pretty bad. The most ironic part of it is that Aspinall giving up the belt...
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Episode 709: Salahdine Parnasse tests positive for being awesome
It feels like the sport of MMA needs a Salahdine Parnasse right now. You know, a charismatic young fighter with an exciting style and the goods to back it up? In these current days of the UFC just rolling out a factory assembly line of anonymous Contender Series fighters, people like this don’t...
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Episode 708: Is Umar the ‘Ziggy Sobotka’ of the Nurmagomedovs?
It was a weird weekend in combat sports, especially for the big betting favorites. Umar Nurmagomedov cemented his place as the Ziggy Sobotka of his family, getting his plug pulled by Song Ya Dong in their UFC Fight Night main event in Shanghai. The “next Mike Tyson” also lost — as Moses Itauma...
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Episode 707: A Robocop and a Cyborg walk into a bar …
Score a couple for the cybernetic organisms, because the biggest winners of the weekend were Gregory “Robocop” Rodrigues and Cris “Cyborg” Justino. Rodrigues went out there in a UFC Fight Night main event and beat up Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez (who didn’t get on the automated humanoid train with...
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Episode 706: What’s hugs got to do with it?
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...
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Episode 705: Any chance it goes bad for Makhachev at UFC 330?
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…
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Episode 704: UFC ain’t sweatin’ no MVP MMA! (Are they though?)
“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...
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Episode 703: It’s the dog days of MMA summer
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...
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Episode 702: Conor McGregor injury update + DDP wins!
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…
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Episode 701: Conor's cooked
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...
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Episode 700: Conor McGregor’s UFC 329 return raises so many questions
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…
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Episode 699: It’s the UFC’s ‘Year of the Unc’
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...
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Episode 698: UFC’s Meta AI rankings are out!
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…
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Episode 697: UFC’s White House show could’ve been worse, we guess
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…
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Episode 696: Trump’s Big Boy Birthday Bash
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?…
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Episode 695: Is this a make-or-break summer for the UFC?
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...
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Episode 694: Dana White makes the (actual) media rounds
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…
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Episode 693: Really, Gina? Breaking down MVP’s first MMA event
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...
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Episode 692: Is Sean Strickland UFC’s best worst fighter?
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...
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Episode 691: Sean Strickland stays strapped at UFC 328
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...
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Episode 690: Can JDM recapture … whatever he had?
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...
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Episode 689: TKO loves money, hates fun
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...
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Episode 688: UFC 327 was wild (some might say wooly)
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,...
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Episode 687: LHW tries to reinvent itself yet again at UFC 327
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…
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Episode 686: Breaking News: UFC puts on good event
The UFC went to Seattle and put on an event many are calling the best of the year so far, where Joe Oliver Pyfer defeated Israel Adesanya in a main event bout that might make ya boi BODYBAGZZZZZZZZZZ somebody in the middleweight division. In other action, Michael Chiesa got his soft-filter...
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Episode 685: MVP fills out the card + UFC heads to Seattle
Most Valuable Promotions announced eight more bouts on Tuesday to fully flesh out its undercard for Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano on May 16 and … well, hello there, Junior dos Santos. Long time no see. Yeah, a couple of these newly revealed fights actually are of some interest, including JDS vs....
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Episode 684: MVP’s Netflix card is the best story in MMA
Those little rascals at Most Valuable Promotions added another spectacle fight to their big, loud MMA show coming up on Netflix on May 16. Nate Diaz and Mike Perry are set to do the damn thing at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, rounding out a lineup of three featured fights that also includes…
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Episode 683: White House card is UFC’s Gobbledy Gooker
Months and months. The UFC spent months hyping the release of its White House event fight card. Back in July of last year, Dana White said it would be the “Sphere on steroids.” In December, the President of the United States promised “eight or nine championship fights.” Basically every UFC…
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Episode 682: Alex Pereira, what you doing, baby?
Alex Pereira announced last week that he is vacating the UFC light heavyweight title. Why? Well, nobody has said for sure but … we’ve got some ideas. Ya boi Poatan isn’t just going to give up the strap for no reason. He must be chasing something and, honestly, the only thing for Pereira to chase...
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Episode 681: Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano … in this economy?!?
As is so typical in this sport, they’re going to give us the superfight. They’re just going to give it to us about 10 years too late. Such is the case with Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano, which will go down May 16 (yes, May 16, 2026) at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. Perhaps the biggest...
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Episode 680: Why is heavyweight?
On the heels of last week’s stinker between Tallison Teixeira and Tai Tuivasa at UFC 325, this weekend brought us Rizvan Kuniev vs. Jailton Almeida and, wow, holy shit did it absolutely suck. Not to beat a dead horse here but: Heavyweight. Still shitty after all these years, huh? In fact, we have...
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Episode 679: Volkanovski is just too good
They did it again, brother, but when it was over it sort of seemed like they probably didn’t need to go to the trouble. Once again, Alexander Volkanovski defeated Diego Lopes by hard-fought but clear-cut unanimous decision, retaining his men's featherweight title at UFC 325. Somehow, the...
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CME Live Chat: UFC 324 reactions and whatnot
Apologies for missing the Proper yesterday, friends. We’re back today with an episode of the Co-Main Event Podcast Patreon Live Chat, which we’re releasing for free to everybody. Seemed like a bad week to miss an episode, what with it being on the heels of the first PLE of the Paramount+ Era and...
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Episode 678: Mike Goldberg voice: “Here … we … go!”
It’s happening. The Paramount+ Era is upon us. What surprises are in store? We’ll find out on Saturday, as UFC 324 goes down, featuring the interim lightweight championship fight between Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett. How does Pimblett (more than a 2-to-1 favorite) beat Gaethje? We’re not...
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Episode 677: Are we ready for Paddy Pimblett, UFC champion?
Just about 10 days before UFC 324, and oddsmakers still see Paddy Pimblett as a bit more than a 2-to-1 favorite to win the interim lightweight title over Justin Gaethje. I mean, damn. Does that seem right to you guys? Honestly, it feels super weird to us, but considering how bad we are at betting...
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Episode 676: New year, new UFC?
Sup, 2026. You gonna suck as bad as 2025 did? Not to start things on a pessimistic note, but if we had to guess … you know what, never mind. As it pertains to this show, 2026 means a lot of things — perhaps most importantly that the UFC has officially disembarked from ESPN+ into the unknown…
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Episode 675: Smell ya later, 2025!
The Year of Our Lord 2025 was a weird one in MMA. Complete dogshit for the heavyweight division, obviously. You started the year with Dana White swearing up and down that he was going to get Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall done, only to have Jones quit the sport to monetize this amazing brand he’d…
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Episode 674: Petr Yan was perfect at UFC 323
Petr Yan showed up looking shockingly prepared for everything Merab Dvalishvili had planned on Saturday at UFC 323. Yan had the takedown defense. Yan had the stifling striking game. Yan worked the head and the body as well as he possibly could have. And perhaps most impressive of all, Yan had the...
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Episode 673: The UFC’s Paramount+ Era will begin … weirdly
CBS gave Dana White a grand stage over the weekend, letting him announce the first fight bookings of the Paramount+ Era during halftime of the Thanksgiving Day NFL game between the Cowboys and Chiefs. Perhaps that was a sign that the budding partnership between the UFC and Paramount–Skydance is...
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Episode 672: Arman Tsarukyan forces the issue with Ilia Topuria
Prior to Arman Tsarukyan’s win over Dan Hooker on Saturday at UFC Fight Night in Qatar, we figured Tsarukyan was still on the outside looking in at the lightweight title picture. He’s long come off as a fairly nondescript, vaguely dickish yet undeniably tough guy who wasn’t offering much in the...
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Episode 671: Islam Makhachev left JDM with no plan B
Yeah, so, Islam Makhachev is your new UFC welterweight champion. Not a huge surprise, considering the former lightweight titlist was a solid favorite to dethrone Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322 over the weekend. What we maybe didn’t expect was just how dominant Makhachev would be. Della Maddalena...
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Episode 670: UFC 322 is the big banana
It’s November in the UFC, and you know what that means! We’re headed out to Madison Square Garden with a fairly stacked card. UFC 322 features a pair of championship fights in its main and co-main events, where two reigning titlists will try to fend off challengers moving up in weight and looking...
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Episode 669: The UFC & combat sports enter ‘Plato’s Cave’
What’s even real anymore? That’s the question we ended up asking ourselves after last weekend’s slate of combat sports chaos. For starters, Isaac Dulgarian’s first-round submission loss to Yadier del Valle at Saturday’s UFC Fight Night sparked yet another fight-fixing scandal. At this point, you...
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Episode 668: UFC 321: It doesn’t get any more heavyweight than that!
How does Tom Aspinall still have an eyeball right now? Dude, Ciryl Gane went two-knuckles deep in Aspinall’s left eye (while pulling off the rare double-eye poke!) during their heavyweight championship fight at UFC 321 on Saturday. Gane might have Dundasso’d a little TOO hard, as his exploration…
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Episode 667: UFC 321 is a must-win for Aspinall, the UFC & the world
Let’s be honest, if the current version of the UFC heavyweight title is going to maintain any shred of credibility, Tom Aspinall pretty much has to win this weekend at UFC 321. Even if that happens, we’ll still only really be ready to say that Gas Hands Tom is one of the three best heavyweights…
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Episode 666: Charles Oliveira is the new king of Rio!
Chucky Olives pretty much wore Mateusz Gamrot around like a button during their main event fight at last weekend’s UFC Fight Night in Rio de Janeiro. It didn’t feel like there was a single second where Gamrot was winning. He got tagged on the feet early in the first, shot for a takedown, and then...
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Episode 665: Chama lives!
Well, that was just disrespectful. Alex Pereira went out there at UFC 320 on Saturday with absolutely no regard whatsoever for Magomed Ankalaev. Bullied him. Dropped him. Pounded him out. Then did the “look at you now” hand gesture that is rapidly becoming Pereira’s touchdown dance. He clowned...
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Episode 664: UFC 320 preview + Wanderlei gets KTFOed
The PPV era is (maybe!) winding down, and on Saturday, we’ll all celebrate by (maybe!) shelling out our hard-earned dollars to watch UFC 320, where Magomed Ankalaev will defend his light heavyweight title in a rematch against Alex Pereira. Doesn’t feel like there’s a ton of sizzle headed into…
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Episode 663: Fighters are starting to get that class action settlement money
The money has finally started to roll in for fighters after the UFC agreed to settle that pesky class action lawsuit for $375 million back in February. Some are going to get millions. Some will only get a few thousand. Still, must feel pretty weird to get the bag after being owed it for more than…
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Episode 662: Is boxing Dana White’s idea of a cushy retirement gig?
You know how, after they retire, some older guys go out and get, like, part-time jobs at the United Way or Ace Hardware or some shit? Not necessarily because they need the money — they just need to keep themselves busy, and maybe they like talking to people about paint colors and nail sizes and…
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Co-Main Event MMA Podcast have?
The Co-Main Event MMA Podcast currently has 746 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Co-Main Event MMA Podcast about?
An irreverent and unscripted look at the week's mixed martial arts news from longtime MMA journalists Ben Fowlkes and Chad Dundas. Topics include the latest happenings in the UFC, Bellator and other promotions.
How often does The Co-Main Event MMA Podcast release new episodes?
The Co-Main Event MMA Podcast releases new episodes frequently with a large back catalog of 746 episodes. Check the episode list for recent publication dates.
Where can I listen to The Co-Main Event MMA Podcast?
You can listen to The Co-Main Event MMA Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Co-Main Event MMA Podcast?
The Co-Main Event MMA Podcast is created and hosted by Chad Dundas and Ben Fowlkes.
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