Spinning Back Clique: Is Dana White in a fight that he can’t win?

This week on “Spinning Back Clique,” the panel looks ahead to UFC 270, discusses the ongoing Jake Paul vs. Dana White saga, and more.

Check out this week’s “Spinning Back Clique,” MMA Junkie’s weekly show that takes a spin through the biggest topics in mixed martial arts.

Our “Spinning Back Clique” panel of Brian “Goze” Garcia, Nolan King and Mike Bohn discuss five topics with host John Morgan.

  • As we look to the first UFC pay-per-view of the new year, it seems the biggest storyline is [autotag]Francis Ngannou[/autotag]’s contract status rather than the unification of the UFC heavyweight title. What do you make of this very public battle, and do you think it will have an effect on what we see in the cage at UFC 270?
  • Speaking of public battles, Jake Paul vs. Dana White seems to be the matchup on everyone’s mind right now, at least if the MMA Junkie numbers are any indication. What do you make of this continued battle? Is Paul really just trying to be an advocate for fighters? And is White making a mistake by engaging him? What is happening here?
  • If we’re looking at fights that might actually happen in 2022, [autotag]Tony Ferguson[/autotag] says a matchup with [autotag]Michael Chandler[/autotag] is in the works. “El Cucuy” fought just once in 2021 and is looking to snap a three-fight skid. Meanwhile, Chandler is also on a two-fight losing streak, albeit a “Fight of the Year” effort and a UFC title fight. So does this fight make sense for one man more than the other? Or should the UFC be looking at something different?
  • Meanwhile, over at Bellator, Scott Coker has said that if [autotag]Ryan Bader[/autotag] is victorious at Bellator 273 later this month, [autotag]Fedor Emelianenko[/autotag] wants that matchup for his retirement fight. What do we think of this idea? Is it a good one?
  • Lastly, we didn’t have any major MMA this past week, but we did see no less than 12 UFC fighters in action at FURY Professional Grappling 3. I can tell you first-hand it was a lot of fun, and people got to put some paychecks in their pocket, but there was one very unfortunate result, with [autotag]Carla Esparza[/autotag] suffering a pretty nasty cut, so what do we think here? Do we need more of this? Or does the risk make it a little dangerous? What do we think?