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 waters of Paramount+. The first Premium Live Event is just a couple of weeks away, and we all still have a lot of questions. So, on the first show of the new year, we try to answer as many of them as we can. Plus, Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier try to monetize these amazing brands they’ve built by going on a Russian reality show; somehow Jake Paul is still talking shit through a busted jaw; and Paddy Pimblett got tapped out in a grappling tournament just a couple of weeks before he’s supposed to fight for the UFC interim lightweight title. Sooo … is all publicity really good publicity? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 built — then come crawling back as soon as he found out about the White House fight card. When they finally did set up a heavyweight title fight for Gas Hands Tommy, Ciryl Gane went two knuckles deep in Aspinall’s eye … which obviously seems to have negatively affected Aspinall’s career more than Gane’s. But it wasn’t all bad. In the spring, fighters started to get that sweet, sweet class-action settlement money. By the end, Merab and Islam were the consensus fighters of the year. The UFC wrapped up the ESPN era and is now on to murkier waters with Paramount. Oh, and what’s this shit with Ilia Topuria? Not great! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 cardio — taking over down the stretch, during what is normally Merab Time — to secure a surprising victory for the men’s bantamweight title in a fight-of-the-year–candidate thriller. In doing so, Yan put himself in position to begin chiseling out a legacy as one of the all-time greats. What now, though? An immediate rematch? The winner of O’Malley vs. Yadong? We’ll find out soon. Elsewhere on the card, Joshua Van captured the flyweight title after Alexandre Pantoja's elbow got its whole shit broke. And the ESPN Era is about to end in the most fitting way possible … with an Apex show headlined by Brandon Royval vs. Manel Kape. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 actually off to a good start — but the fights themselves were weird as hell, man. Justin Gaethje vs. Paddy Pimblett for an interim lightweight title to headline the company’s first PPV-turned-PLE at UFC 324? The men’s featherweight championship rematch absolutely no one asked for between Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes? What are we doing here, you guys? Plus, it’s UFC 323 fight week! Can Merab make it four successful title defenses in just under a year? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 puts-butts-in-seats department. He’d already blown one title shot by pulling out of UFC 311 on a day’s notice — and the UFC still has Paddy Pimblett waiting as a more marketable and presumably far easier next opponent for Ilia Topuria. But this performance against Hooker? A full-on beatdown. And maybe Tsarukyan’s spoiled-brat persona is starting to take on the air of something a promoter can actually use. The question now: Can Tsarukyan force Topuria’s hand? Will Topuria lose face if he takes a gimme fight against Pimblett first? And will the UFC’s preference for Paddy the Baddie win out? Plus, Ian Garry keeps winning while somehow underperforming. And, of course, Conor McGregor has decided he is the great-grandson of God himself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 had no answers — and, from the looks of it, no plan B. By the end he appeared absolutely miserable out there, getting taken down at will, while his corner seemed fresh out of ideas beyond, “Try to punch him in the face!” You know who else is still really good? Valentina Shevchenko. She convincingly turned back the challenge of former strawweight champ Zhang Weili to retain her women’s flyweight gold. Plus, just like Conor McGregor before him, Dillon Danis found out that some people don’t play. And Jake Paul is on a suicide mission. But does he know that? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 to become champ-champs. We still say that? Champ-champ? Is that still a thing? Your welterweight main event features surprise champ Jack Della Maddalena trying to make his bones and earn his respect against former lightweight king and unstoppable juggernaut Islam Makhachev. The co-main, meanwhile, features women’s strawweight great Zhang Weili moving up to try to take women’s flyweight gold from the legendary Valentina Shevchenko. It’s gonna be a good one, kids — and it’s the second-to-last pay-per-view before the UFC moves to Paramount+ and (allegedly!) into the PLE era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 couldn’t blame a casual viewer for wondering: Is this whole shit rigged? Also, there was referee Mark Smith’s bizarre stoppage in the heavyweight bout between Ante Delija and Waldo Cortes-Acosta — a mix-up that led Delija to believe he’d won, only for the fight to be restarted and Cortes-Acosta to immediately score a knockout victory. Whoops! And that’s not even touching the boxing world’s latest drama: Gervonta “Tank” Davis getting booted from his fight with Jake Paul after new domestic violence charges, followed by Paul acting like he was just now discovering that Davis might be a terrible guy. Oh, and Andrew Tate is apparently the new CEO of Misfits Boxing, a move that might be real, might be trolling, or might just be setting up a future fight with KSI. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 of Aspinall’s cranium with his left index finger did get their bout declared a no contest, and yet, somehow, it still felt like Gane won the battle of public opinion. The crowd booed Aspinall (naturally). A bunch of shitty MMA meme accounts made fun of him (naturally). Some former fighters came out and said THEY would’ve kept fighting (naturally). Dana White is talking about booking the immediate rematch (because of course). So, sorry, Tom, you got Three-Stooged and now a lot of idiots think you quit. So, yeah, we thought the worst thing that could happen at UFC 321 was a Ciryl Gane victory, and then heavyweight basically laughed in our faces and said, “Hold my beer.” Plus, in the other two heavyweight fights, Jailton Almeida lost by forgetting to fight and Chris Barnett (literally) showed his ass. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 in the world — the UFC champion of active heavyweights currently on the roster, let’s say. But if Ciryl Gane wins? Forget about it. Gane’s already lost to both Jon Jones AND Francis Ngannou. There’s no way you’re making the case he’s the “undisputed” anything. So, let’s go, Tommy! Plus, Mackenzie Dern will vie to win the vacant strawweight title against Virna Jandiroba, who she has already defeated and is currently the betting favorite to defeat again. Almost as though the UFC has a rooting interest in this shit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 got dominated on the ground until Oliveira put him out of his misery with a face crank (which, OK, maybe that was miserable) in the second round. Then Oliveira jumped out of the cage and into the crowd on some Jose Aldo shit. Long live the new king of Rio! Man, the UFC security dudes must hate that. Also, Charles — next time, maybe more than just a pat on the shoulder for your wife and kid before you start partying it up with the boyz. Now that that’s settled — Oliveira vs. Max Holloway? Give it to me. It’s mine! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Ankalaev from start to finish, is what he did. Clowned him. So, now the Chama Era is back in the light heavyweight division, and the only remaining question is whether there’s anything meaningful left for Pereira to do there. Another fight with Jiri Prochazka (who also got a win at 320)? Carlos Ulberg (who got a win the weekend before)? Or does Pereira start looking up the ladder at heavyweight? Jones? Aspinall? Gane? Anything seems possible. Plus, Cory Sandhagen was game as hell. He was well prepared. He was well coached. He just couldn’t stop Merab Dvalishvili. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 that one, but hey, with Carlos Ulberg absolutely devastating “The Devastator” Dominick Reyes last weekend at UFC Fight Night in Perth, perhaps we’ve already got a halfway interesting challenger waiting for the winner? Also, though … “Big Ank?” Nah. We’re not doing that. We’re not saying that, dude. The co-main features Merab Dvalishvili putting his gold on the line against Cory Sandhagen in — let’s face it — a fight we all expect Merab to win. In other news: holy fucking shit, did you see Wanderlei Silva get knocked out cold by a guy in a tuxedo in Brazil this weekend? It was bad, man. BAAAAAAAAD. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 a decade. To some, it might seem like free money, while others are having a more complicated time with it. Plus, it’s Carlos Ulberg vs. Dominick Reyes this weekend in Perth. It actually might turn out to be kind of an important fight, considering the junk heap that is the UFC light heavyweight Top 15. Volkan Oezdemir is still in the Top 10, you guys. Volkan Oezdemir! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 the best brands of epoxy spackle. Is that what Dana White is doing with boxing? Dana was at the big boxing match on Saturday, sitting at ringside next to Turki Alalshikh and Mark Wahlberg. After Terence Crawford whooped up on Canelo Alvarez, Dana wrapped the Ring Magazine belt around Crawford’s waist. Aside from that, we’re not totally sure what his job was there. So, as TKO reportedly plots its takeover of the sweet science, is Dana effectively using boxing like some guys join the country club? Does he want to fade out of the UFC, kick back and spend a few hours a day destroying the Muhammad Ali Act and looking for young, white, Irish fighters to promote? Cuz those are the vibes. Meanwhile, at Dana’s real job, they put on an event the same night, where Diego Lopes knocked all kinds of blood out of Jean Silva’s head during UFC Noche. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Remember last year, when for about six months the UFC tried to pretend like UFC: Noche was a big deal — mostly because Dana White had to prove to the (almost entirely nonexistent) haters that he could pull off a fighting event at Sphere? Those times are gone now. This weekend’s UFC: Noche card (yes, it is this weekend) is pretty much being left in the dust by the UFC’s part in co-promoting the Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford boxing match on Netflix. In fact, UFC: Noche has been relegated to regular-ass FIght Night status, with Diego Lopes vs. Jean Silva serving as main event from the Frost Center in San Antonio (grandaddy of them all). Sad, man, sad— though Lopes vs. Silva will probably be a pretty cool fight. Plus, come for Ronda Rousey saying she “ain’t fighting at the fucking White House,” stay for Ben Fowlkes’ five-minute pro wrestling promo about how bad Jon Jones messed up his six-month “retirement.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Honestly, Nassourdine Imavov is pretty legit. He’s 16-4 (1) overall, riding a three-fight win streak and heads into Saturday’s UFC Fight Night main event against Caio Borralho fresh off a February victory over Israel Adesanya. He was the UFC’s No. 1 middleweight contender until voters recently had to make room for Dricus Du Plessis. So, why does nobody seem to know (or care) who he is? Good news for Imavov: if he beats Borralho this weekend, he’ll likely be one of only two men in line for a shot at newly crowned champ Khamzat Chimaev. Would a highlight-reel finish in Paris finally be enough to make fans remember his name? Also on this episode: you guys go hard on Luke Rockhold for getting folded up like a lawn chair by Darren Till, the Bigi Boy wins Dirty Boxing’s pizza box-ass belt and Jon Jones is [checks notes] legally vindicated! For now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So, Quinton Jackson’s son went on a crazy, uh, rampage at an independent pro wrestling event over the weekend. Raja Jackson — a person we’d barely ever heard of before — got into a backstage beef with a wrestler named Syko Stu and then jumped in the ring during the guy’s match and damn near beat him to death. It was bizarre and, honestly, it made us feel a little sick to watch it. Now, the whole thing has gone viral, due in part to Jackson livestreaming it on his own channel. So, ugh. Also, we take listener questions about Johnny Walker weirding his way to victory over Zhang Mingyang, Aljo beating up the ghost of Brian Ortega and some extended fallout from Khamzat Chimaev being your new UFC middleweight champ. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He done did it. Khamzat Chimaev basically pitched a perfect game against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319, making it look EASY en route to one of the more lopsided decision wins you will ever witness in a championship fight. DDP showed up looking uniquely ill-equipped to stop Chimaev’s all-out takedown assault. And Ya Boi Borz? He looked so dominant people got mad at him for not doing more. So, now that the long-heralded Chimaev Era is finally underway at 185 pounds ... shouldn’t we be more excited? Plus, how does Michael Page keep doing this? And where are we at with Aaron Pico now? Also, what do you get when you cross one of light heavyweight’s most dangerous knockout artists with the guy who routinely gets knocked out in the funniest possible way? You get UFC Fight Night: Johnny Walker vs. Zhang Mingyang. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here’s something nobody saw coming: the UFC is taking its talents to Paramount. Not Netflix. Not re-upping with ESPN. Not even a late play from Amazon or Apple. In a staggering seven-year, $7.7 billion deal, the UFC agrees to keep its programming mostly in one piece (thank you, MMA Gods!). It will stream exclusively on Paramount+, with certain events simulcast on CBS. The biggest kicker here is that, despite some conflicting reports, the traditional pay-per-view model might be going away. So … is it possible … being a UFC fan is about to get cheaper? That would be weird! Lots of ins and outs to discuss here. This deal seems great for the UFC, maybe good for Paramount, possibly good for fans … but, once again, potentially extremely shitty for fighters. Plus, what would a UFC schedule even look like without PPV? And did Paramount perhaps vastly overpay for UFC broadcast rights in order to appease the President of the United States? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices