Check out this week’s “Spinning Back Clique,” MMA Junkie’s weekly live show that takes a spin through the biggest topics in mixed martial arts.
This week, panelists Matthew Wells, Brian “Goze” Garcia and Dan Tom talk with host “Gorgeous” George Garcia live at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) to discuss and debate:
- Dana White’s response to the PFL’s Bellator purchase: When asked by Wells, who was on site at UFC on ESPN 52 in Austin, Texas, for his thoughts about the merger of the two promotions, the UFC CEO aggressively said each organization was “sh*tty” and that no one watches or buys tickets to either of them. He clearly doesn’t think the same way the PFL’s Donn Davis does, which is that a combined PFL/Bellator roster is as strong as the UFC’s roster. So what do we make of White’s response, and how he responded?
- UFC on ESPN 52 might have been the best event of the year, even with recency bias removed. There were nine stoppages in 12 fights, wrapped up by Arman Tsarukyan’s brutal knockout of Beneil Dariush in the lightweight headliner. That result threw yet another wrench into the works for that division in the UFC – which might be a good problem to have. So just what should the pecking order be at this point for champion Islam Makhachev?
- Referee blunders are common in MMA. The rulesets have been modified over the years to allow for things like replay or consultation with other officials. But sometimes judgment calls go awry, and that’s what seemed to happen to Kerry Hatley on Saturday when he let Bobby Green take a reasonably absurd amount of additional punishment from Jalin Turner in the UFC on ESPN 52 co-main event. The criticism came quickly against Hatley. But these things are going to continue to happen in the sport. Can anything be done to curb it?
- There were some heavy hitters making big moves at UFC Austin, including former champions Miesha Tate and Deiveson Figueiredo. Tate returned to 135 pounds after she tried flyweight and it didn’t go the way she hoped. And Figueiredo moved up from flyweight for the first time and looked great at bantamweight against Rob Font. Others had great finishes, too, like co-main event winner Jalin Turner on short notice and Sean Brady, who ran through “TUF” winner Kelvin Gastelum like a hot knife through butter. So who outside Tsarukyan had the best night at the office?
- Over in the bareknuckle world, Mike Perry continued to shine when he battered former UFC and Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez to the point his corner had to step in to shut things down at BKFC 56 in Salt Lake City. Now Perry wants another former UFC champ, Anthony Pettis, to give the BKFC a shot. Mike Perry now is the BKFC “King of Violence” and he’s finding more success in bareknuckle boxing than MMA. Who’s primed to make the move over to join him next?
- … and much more.