MMA History Podcast · MMA Detective Mike Davis, Joey Venti

2025 Year in Review

·1 hr 52 min·5 clips

Joey Venti opens the wrap-up with Mike Davis. Brian McLaughlin returns from New York. Julio joins from Sao Paulo, Brazil. James Hergott comes in from Los Angeles. Venti describes Hergott as a movie producer, fitness guru, and MMA enthusiast. The guests quickly say the show is one of their favorites. The banter turns into a joke about being among the few people who actually listen. The conversation leans into how much MMA history lives outside the obvious record. Davis frames the show as a preservation project for early MMA stories. The group keeps returning to obscure names and old stories that feel too strange for Wikipedia. Sean comes up as an example of a hard interview subject. His childhood and an unpublished book are discussed as the kind of material that deserves a real sit-down. The group then broadens the lens to wrestlers and the dark events that shaped them. Dan Gable's sister is mentioned. Mark Coleman's sister is mentioned too. They connect that kind of loss to the intensity those athletes carried. The discussion also turns to Christine Ferea and bare-knuckle boxing. Marcelo Mello and Carlson Gracie get major attention, with the Carlson story landing as especially heartbreaking. The guests also mention a one-fight UFC story as another example of a story worth preserving. The show finishes with plugs, including Supercar Saints, plus jokes about asking for plugs up front and keeping the focus on the guests.

As heard by us

A 2025 year-in-review MMA history hangout that stays grounded in the people and stories behind the sport.

Built as a 2025 year-in-review hangout, the episode settles into the show's strongest lane: history, memory, and the people who were actually around for it.

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Why you'd press play

A year-end roundtable that keeps turning MMA history into fresh receipts.

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