Podcast
The Co-Main Event MMA Podcast
Hosted by Chad Dundas and Ben Fowlkes · EN
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.
35episodes
Episodes
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Episode 699: It’s the UFC’s ‘Year of the Unc’
2d ago01:02:36Tap to summarizeOld 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!
1w ago01:05:19Tap to summarizeBreaking 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
2w ago01:03:34Tap to summarizeI 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
3w ago01:04:31Tap to summarizeD-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?
Jun 101:03:15Tap to summarizeThe 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
May 2601:02:10Tap to summarizeDana 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
May 1901:05:38Tap to summarizeMost 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?
May 1201:07:52Tap to summarizeHe 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
May 501:05:58Tap to summarizeWe’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?
Apr 2801:05:57Tap to summarizeA 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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