The Co-Main Event MMA Podcast Chad Dundas and Ben Fowlkes

Dustin Poirier is already an all-time great lightweight. He's a shoo-in first-ballot UFC Hall of Famer. He's beloved by fans. He possesses a resume that will stand-up with almost anyone's. But you know what would be really transformative for him? If he became undisputed lightweight champion. This weekend at UFC 302, Poirier gets what is likely his final opportunity to seize that crown when he takes on Islam Makhachev. It definitely won't be easy. Poirier is going off as close to a 6-to-1 underdog at some sportsbooks. But we can't help but wonder ... what if ...
Plus, Sean Strickland and Paulo Costa should be an interesting match-up of styles between two well-known, uh, characters. But only one of them needs to win it to keep his hype train rolling. Spoiler: It's Sean Strickland.
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Hey! It’s the 12th anniversary of the Co-Main Event Podcast! Yaaaay! Didn’t think we’d still be here, did you? DID YOU? Haha, well, screw you haters, we’ll see you in the passion project gotcha videos we get our video staffs to produce making fun of you specifically. Funny to look back where it all began. Most of the fighters we talked about in those early days have faded from view now (or at least have moved on to the bare knuckle boxing portions of their combat sports careers) … with the notable exceptions of a few, including both Jon Jones and Anderson Silva (technically retired, but whatevs), who both just so happen to figure into our discussions THIS VERY WEEK.
First though, you gotta take your hat off to boxing, which has a fascinating feud over its undisputed heavyweight title going on right now (and it doesn’t get much better than that). Also, UFC 304 fights got announced and they answer some of our biggest matchmaking questions of the year … while raising new ones.
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By now we all know what Derrick Lewis brings to the table. You either like it, or you don't. Lewis is going to come into fight week and be cheeky and affable, claiming to have not really trained and/or not to know his opponent's name. Then he's going to either A) Almost lose his fight before winning it or B) Almost win his fight before losing it. Afterward, he's going to take his pants off. This is pretty much what happened on Saturday against Rodrigo Nascimento, where Lewis ultimately emerged with a third-round TKO win after two-plus round where he flirted with the idea of messing around and losing. He won, whipped off his shorts and fanned the nearly unconscious Nascimento with them before sliding his cup out and tossing it into press row. So, yeah, everything went according to plan ... until an MMA "journalist" asked Dana White to sign Lewis' athletic supporter at the post fight press conference. Ugh. What the hell, you guys.
Plus, Jake Paul and Mike Tyson faced off for the first time this week, while over in Saudi Arabia, the heavyweight boxing match that actually matters is scheduled for this weekend.
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Fitting that as the Co-Main Event Podcast celebrates its 600th episode, it's an old dog making the most headlines from Saturday's UFC 301. If Jose Also was supposed to serve as a stepping stone for Jonathan Martinez down there in Rio over the weekend, Aldo did not get the memo. He showed up looking like the Jose Jr. of old, pretty much putting a whipping on the younger Martinez over three rounds. Vintage Aldo! Plus, Alexandre Pantoja successfully defended his men's flyweight title against Steve Erceg but didn't necessarily come out of it smelling like a rose--and Michel Pereira's crazy ass back flips his way into our hearts once again.
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A few years ago it might have seemed farfetched that one day we'd be sitting here spending the majority of an entire episode of the Proper talking about Bare Knuckle FC and a Jake Paul fight, but that's the reality of where combat sports is at the moment. The big headlines for the weekend were: Mike Perry dismantling Thiago Alves in a minute flat at Knucklemania IV and Paul's fight against Mike Tyson being sanctioned as an actual, real professional boxing match (sort of) by the Texas athletic commission. By comparison, the UFC's Fight Night event got left in the dust. So, there you go, there's our show. Boom. Done.
Oh wait, except that UFC 301 is this weekend down there in Rio. So we gotta talk about that, too.
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In all the hubbub over UFC 300, most of us missed the juicy detail that Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos was down there sitting cageside on the elbow of Ari Emanuel during the event. You know who didn't miss it? David Spade. The UFC OG celebrity himself posted a pic on his socials blaming "Ted" for blocking his view of the octagon. So, that's interesting. Just a few weeks after Netflix acquires broadcast rights for WWE, there's "Ted" checking out the merchandise at the UFC's biggest event of the year. Maybe Sarandos is just a hardcore. Or ... maybe ...
Well, we're certainly not going to pass up the opportunity to speculate wildly.
Plus, PFL had a pretty good event on Friday and Ryan Garcia's crazy ass actually won that big boxing match.
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