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Spinning Back Clique: On Kamaru Usman’s welterweight GOAT status after UFC 268, more

MMA Junkie Staff
·2 min read

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.

This week, we look back on the UFC 268 and Bellator 270 headliners, look ahead to this weekend’s action, and talk a little Jon Jones.

Our “Spinning Back Clique” panel of Mike Bohn, Danny Segura and “Gorgeous” George Garcia discuss these topics with host John Morgan.

  • At UFC 268, Kamaru Usman defended the welterweight title for the fifth time with a unanimous decision win over Colby Covington, and UFC president Dana White said he believes “The Nigerian Nightmare” has supplanted Georges St-Pierre as the welterweight GOAT. Is he right? If not, what is Usman lacking to earn that recognition?

  • Meanwhile, Rose Namajunas also scored the first defense of her second UFC title reign with a hard-fought decision win over former titleholder Zhang Weili. Namajunas said she thinks Carla Esparza is probably the next logical challenger, but White wasn’t committed to booking that rematch. So put yourself in the matchmaker’s room and book the next fight for Namajunas. Is there another fight that makes more sense?

  • This past weekend also saw Patricky Freire claim the Bellator lightweight belt that was vacated by his brother, Patricio Freire. The two Brazilians have been longtime stalwarts of the Bellator roster, so we’ll ask this: Are the “Pitbull” brothers the best sibling duo to ever compete in MMA?

  • This weekend is a Bellator-UFC weekend, with Bellator 271 on Friday night in South Florida and UFC Fight Night 197 on Saturday in Las Vegas. Max Holloway vs. Yair Rodriguez is a stellar UFC main event, and Cris Cyborg, one of the greatest to ever do it, is in action against Sinead Kavanagh for Bellator. Outside of those headliners, what fight do you think is appointment viewing?

  • To close it out, let’s have a little fun: Jon Jones says the garage won’t be enough for him moving forward, and he’s going to take a look around at some options for training as he prepares for his UFC heavyweight debut. Let’s say Jon calls you up and says, “Where should I go to train?” What would you tell him?

“Spinning Back Clique” is released each Tuesday on MMA Junkie’s YouTube channel. You can watch the full episode in the video above.