Friends, our apologies for leaving you hanging without an episode of the Proper yesterday. Circumstances beyond our control and all that. We hope that you will accept this free episode of the Patreon Live Chat as a peace offering. On this episode we entertain such questions as: Who is worse, Jon Jones or Conor McGregor? What’s left for Colby Covington after losing to Joaquin Buckley? And what MMA fighter would be the worst to get a present from in your office white elephant gift exchange? We hope you like it.

Also, if you really, really want to become a member of the CME Patreon, email us! Maybe we can still get you that discount.

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So, maybe Shavkat Rakhmonov fought Ian (Machado) Garry with an injury on Saturday at UFC 310. Maybe that’s why THAT BOY GOOD didn’t look quite as GOOD as we expected, even as he emerged with the unanimous decision win. Maybe it was merely the fault of our own expectations that left us feeling disappointed by the fight. And, yeah, now everybody’s gotta admit that Garry is very good. Maybe even elite welterweight good.

Plus, Alexandre Pantoja is, in fact, that dominant.

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Yeah, we know what you’re thinking. First of all: Men’s flyweight pay per view main event? Second of all: Who the hell is Kai Asakura? We get it. From 15,000 feet, maybe UFC 310 doesn’t look like the greatest PPV of the year … and it’s not. But you know what? It’s actually a pretty deep fight card. Not only do you get to see the former two-time Rizin (Risin’? Risen?) bantamweight champ Asakura drop to 125-pounds and fight for the title against Alexandre Pantoja in his UFC debut, but you get to see Shavkat THAT BOY GOOD Rakhmonov and Ian (Machado!) Garry square off in a battle of undefeated prospects.

Plus, you got Ciryl Gane vs. Alexander Volkov (for the interim interim interim heavyweight title, maybe) and Bryce Mitchell vs. Kron Gracie (uh, wut?) as well as appearances by such luminaries as Nate THE TRAIN Landwehr (If he doesn't lose, he'll probably win!), Vicente Luque (thankfully NOT fighting Nick Diaz), Aljamain Sterling (fighting on the prelims for some reason) and Chris Weidman (still fighting for some reason). Don't tempt us with a good time, UFC!

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It has been a long time since Conor McGregor was a relevant fighter in the UFC. Now, his worth as a human being seems to be rapidly diminishing, as well. This week, after being found guilty of rape in a civil trial in Ireland, some bad stuff finally started happening to McGregor. Now that he’s an adjudicated rapist, he’s been ordered to pay his victim around $250,000, has been ditched by the new owners of Proper 12, has been cut out of a video game appearance and has lost some distribution of his various other liquor companies in Ireland. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy, eh?

Is this finally the tipping point for McGregor, where the roller coaster has reached the top of the incline and begins to tip ever slightly toward the heart-racing, bone-rattling plummet to the bottom? Maybe. One thing that seems obvious, however, is that the UFC will almost certainly try to book him in another fight sometime in 2025. This week, we break down what McGregor’s guilt means for his future both in fighting and beyond.

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The fights themselves were not necessarily the story for either Jake Paul or Jon Jones, during what has to be considered one of the biggest combat sports weekends in recent memory. For Jake Paul, it wasn’t really that interesting that he went out there on Friday and beat the Ghost of Mike Tyson at Cowboy Stadium in front of a reported 65 million households on Netflix. The story was how many people watched, and how they reacted. Meanwhile, for Jones, his UFC 309 heavyweight championship fight against 42-year-old Stipe Miocic also went about as expected. The big plotline, though, is what Jones will do next.

Also, HEY, did you know we’re running a 50% off holiday special over at the CME Patreon? Right now through Dec. 15 you can get half off a monthly or annual membership if you head over to patreon.com/comainevent and enter the code 20E37 at checkout. Isn’t that something? Sounds like you should probably do that.

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Albeit for very different reasons, we’ve been looking forward to both Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic and Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul for a while now. Both fights have experienced lengthy delays (one owing to Jones’ torn pectoral, the other owing to Tyson “vomiting blood and defecating tar” on an airplane) and now they are going to share a single weekend. The spectacle that will be Tyson vs. Paul airs Friday night on Netflix, and perhaps even more than the fight itself, we’re keen to see what the reaction will be on that platform.

Jones and Miocic do the damn thing for the UFC heavyweight title the next night from Madison Square Garden in the main event of UFC 309. It’ll be Jones’ second foray into the big boy division, while Miocic returns for the first time since 2021. What will happen? Well, oddsmakers think they know. Is there any chance we might be surprised?

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Belal Muhammad is out of his scheduled title defense against Shavkat THAT BOY GOOD Rakhmonov at UFC 310, owing to an infected bone in his toe. Say what? An infected BONE? We didn’t even know that was a thing that could happen. The hunt is now on for a replacement and you KNOW who the UFC is going to call first. Alex Pereira, that’s who. Honestly, though, hasn't Poatan done enough? Can’t we just leave this guy a lone for a few months? Meanwhile, Rahkmonov has called out Kamaru Usman for an interim title fight. Hmmmm … not sure what we think about that.

Plus, Brandon Moreno reminds us who the F he is and Conor McGregor proves for the 1,073rd time that he is a bad person.

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What a strange mix of emotions we felt watching UFC 308. On one hand, it was cool to see guys like Ilia Topuria and Khamzat Chimaev score big wins to solidify themselves among the next wave of MMA’s great fighters. But why, oh why, did it have to happen at the expense of our beloved Max Holloway and Robert Whittaker? In the end it was another stark reminder that fighting is not like other sports. In football or baseball or soccer, your favorite player gets old and gets cut from the team. Maybe they embarrass themselves by signing as a free agent somewhere else and hanging on too long before sailing away into a cushy retirement. No biggie. But, in combat sports, JFC, we have to watch them get brutally knocked out or, in some cases, get their teeth broken and their jaws CRUNCHED.

But also maybe … that’s why we watch?

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There are a lot of lean times in MMA. A lot of times where it feels like, for lack of a better term, ain’t shit goin’ on. This is not one of them. With Francis Ngannou making his return to MMA last Saturday with a first-round KO over Renan Ferreira in PFL and this Saturday offering us Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway at UFC 308, well, that’s about as good a couple of weekends as we’re gonna get in the year of our lord 2024.

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This Saturday in Saudi Arabia, Francis Ngannou returns to the cage for the first time since January 2022. A lot has transpired since then, as we all know: Big Fran left the UFC amid a bitter contract dispute, he made a lot of money boxing, he suffered unthinkable personal tragedy … and now, he’s going to show up to fulfill his obligations to PFL by fighting Renan Ferreira on the fight company’s “Battle of the Giants” pay-per-view.

Seems like a lot could go wrong here, both for the now 38-year-old Ngannou and the PFL, which frankly has a pretty good PPV card here it hasn't promoted very well. So, does Battle of the Giants come up big … or small?

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UFC 307 was not one for the record books. In fact, right up to the point that Alex Pereira and Khalil Rountree Jr. took the cage for the light heavyweight title fight main event, it was sort of a stinker. But then Pereira and Rountree went to war – and it was pretty glorious. Shoutout to Rountree for showing up and showing out better than we had any right to expect. Ultimately, though, it was Pereira once again proving that not only is he the best 205-pounder on the planet, but he's also the UFC's MVP.

Seriously, though, don’t call him again for a while. He sounds like he needs some time off.

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