The Craic with Petesy Carroll

After all of my belly-aching about the issues with the venue that is scheduled to host UFC Manchester, The Co-op Live is now set for it’s official launch on Tuesday May 14th. 

Chisanga Malata of Sun Sport joins the show to discuss all the concerns surrounding the venue, whether UFC have a contingency plan if things continue to go badly for the arena and Manchester’s own Lerone Murphy who headlines a UFC Apex event against ...

The U.S. start times for July 27’s UFC Manchester card should be the least of fans’ worries as the Co-op Live venue, the arena that is set to host the event, has been embroiled in a “fiasco” which has seen multiple high-profile concert cancelled. 

Petesy gives a timeline of what has happened with the arena, from gigs being cancelled as fans stand in line to gain admission, to air conditioning units falling from the rafter ...

Did UFC pack 299 and 300 with Brazilian stars to the point that they couldn’t possibly deliver a massive card in Rio this weekend for UFC 301? How much would Alex Pereira’s presence help the card and is Ian Machado Garry being embraced by the Brazilian people? 

“The Brazilian Beast,” also known as legendary MMA Fighting journalist Guilherme Cruz joins The Craic to give us a view from the ground from The City God. He explai...

Paul “The Big News” Hughes returns to The Craic to reveal his dance partner for his PFL/Bellator debut, which will take place on June 22 at Dublin’s 3 Arena, the Irishman’s first appearance at the celebrated arena. 

Hughes discusses how it felt when the news of his signing was dropped in the middle of the night during the post-fight press conference for PFL’s recent Chicago event, how the deal he struck with PFL can change...

The booking of Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson at Cowboy Stadium has coveted more outrage than any of Paul’s previous boxing adventures. Yet, the co-main event of the marquee belongs to Ireland’s beacon of sporting success, Katie Taylor, and her 2022 Madison Square Garden counterpart, Amanda Serrano. 

One of boxing journalism’s finest, Gavan Casey of the42.ie, returns to The Craic to discuss the bizarre dichotomy of a pure sporti...

PFL flexed their financial muscle with the signing of Paul Hughes over the weekend, but will the UFC continue to allow top their talent like the Irishman, Cedric Doumbé and reportedly Salahdine Parnasse slip through their fingers? 

The Trident of Knowledge - featuring Severe MMA’s Andy Stevenson and Bloody Elbow’s Donagh Corby - forms to the discuss all of the permutations to PFL’s capture of Hughes including how successfu...

SunSport journalist Chisanga Malata and Petesy have been discussing a potential UFC Manchester event since December on The Craic, but the event is yet to be confirmed. 

With Tom Aspinall present at UFC 300, and Chisanga on site at the event reporting, it felt like it was an open goal to announce the date that has been rumoured for the all-new Co-op Live arena. 

Chisanga and Petesy discuss what the holdup has been,...

Petesy is joined by U.K. correspondent for The Craic, the legendary Sun Sport journalist, Chisanga Malata, to discuss his experience at UFC 300, that Max Holloway finish and the muted Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler announcement. 

With both lads hearing that McGregor had signed for the bout during the week, they were surprised - given the ample opportunities throughout the massive fight week - that the Irishman’s retur...

Following a drama-filled weekend for Petesy at Cage Warriors 170, the promotion’s president Graham Boylan reached out and the situation is now resolved. Petesy shares the timeline of events which led to the mending of the relationship, which will see him happily continue to cover the European organisation in the future. 

After that, the Trident of Knowledge forms, with Donagh Corby and Andy Stevenson returning to the show ...

Petesy recaps a weekend where he was banned from Cage Warriors 170, became the subject of a baffling “gag”, jousted for his event credential and ultimately witnessed a fantastic night for Irish MMA. 

Petesy recaps his online and in-person interactions with Cage Warriors president Graham Boylan and speaks to newly crowned welterweight champion James Sheehan, the hottest free agent in the sport Paul Hughes, former Cage Warri...

Aside from Paul Hughes’ looming free agency, one of the main talking points going into Cage Warriors 170 is Team Ryano vying for a Cage Warriors title for the first time since 2013, when the legendary Neil Seery clinched flyweight gold. 

Speaking to Andy Ryan, Petesy discusses the golden era of the sport which occurred around the same time while the infamous Team Ryan boss underlines why he believes the scene has become di...

Paul Hughes not being signed by the UFC has been one of the great mysteries on the European scene for the past number of years.

Ahead of his first round knockout of Jan Quaeyhaegens at Cage Warriors 161, Hughes revealed that he had turned down a short notice debut with the promotion and an opportunity to compete on TUF due to injury.

Now, before he headlines Cage Warriors 170 in Dublin this Saturday, Hughes reveal...

Former Cage Warriors champions Caolan Loughran and Rhys McKee join The Craic ahead of must-win fights at UFC Atlantic City. 

Rhys McKee discusses being away from his new-born daughter for the first time, why he is particularly excited about fighting Chidi Njokuani and how this camp feels different to he previous ones. Caolan discusses the influx of supporters he expects in Atlantic City, including a GAA team and many more ...

On The Craic, we’ve previously heard about what Ilia Topuria means to Spanish MMA and the broader Hispanic MMA community, but we have never got the perspective from his true homeland, Georgia. 

Today, Petesy is joined by celebrated Georgian mixed-martial-arts journalist, Giorgi Kokiashvili of Setanta Sports, to discuss how the sport has exploded in the small nation, which has a population of just 3.7 million people. 
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Another road edition of The Craic saw Petesy pull a 19-hour shift, part of which he was joined by Donagh Corby as they embarked on a trip up north for Bellator Belfast.

Petesy speaks to the legendary Dan Hardy, number one contender to Johnny Eblen's middleweight crown Fabian Edwards, Irish boxing royalty Mick Conlan and the Score's Nick Baldwin. 

He recaps all the thrills and spills from the event with h...

Former Cage Warriors lightweight champion and a legend of the Irish scene, Joe McColgan joins the The Craic for the very first time to take a look back at his career and to underline the lack of regret he has in terms of not making it to the UFC. 

A Belfast native, McColgan highlights his surprise that the upcoming Bellator card has not generated much buzz in the city and also sheds light on the impact Ryan Curtis has had ...

The Trident of Knowledge form with Donagh Corby and Andy Stevenson returning to The Craic to discuss Omran Chabaan of Team KF and Paddy McCorry of FAI being announced as cast members for the upcoming season of TUF, which begins filming in a little over a week’s time. 

The trio shed light on the fighters careers up until this point, consider whether Alex Grasso or Valentina Shevchenko’s team would be better to join, discuss...

Michael Venom Page had a perfect introduction to his new promotion at UFC 299. From his spectacular homage to the Undertaker in his entrance, to his signature showboating in the Octagon and his unanimous decision win over Kevin Holland, it went about as well as it could. 

However, in the post-fight press conference, Dana White underlined that he wasn’t a fan of his ringwalk and disclosed that he must “match-make the right ...

The stoppage in the main event of PFL Paris may have been the least interesting thing Petesy experienced on his trip to the City of Light. 

Petesy gives his take on the passion of the fan base, the (wild) enthusiasm of the media and explains why he feels MMA has gone mainstream in France in a way that it never did in the U.K. and Ireland. He also explains why Paris to PFL is on a much bigger scales than Bellator’s celebrat...