Spinning Back Clique: Reaction to UFC 276, Daniel Cormier’s surprise Hall of Fame confession
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 panel of Mike Bohn, Brian “Goze” Garcia and Matthew Wells discuss five topics with host “Gorgeous” George Garcia.
Israel Adesanya’s middleweight title reign rolls on after he successfully defended the belt for the fifth time with a unanimous decision win over Jared Cannonier at UFC 276. It was one-way traffic for 25 minutes, even if Adesanya thinks he had an “off night,” but a contingent of fans afterward heaped criticism on the champ for being boring and playing things too safely. Why is that happening to Adesanya and not necessarily to other dominant champions like Kamaru Usman and Valentina Shevchenko?
Continuing with middleweight, Alex Pereira knocked out Sean Strickland in the first round at UFC 276 to set up a title shot against Adesanya, whom he’s beaten twice in kickboxing. Ever since his arrival to the UFC last November, people have been talking about Pereira posing a threat to Adesanya’s reign. How worried should Adesanya be about fighting Pereira in MMA?
As if two prior wins wasn’t enough, Alexander Volkanovski left zero doubt being better than Max Holloway after successfully defending his featherweight title with a masterful performance at UFC 276. Volkanovski afterward teased a move up to lightweight, which seemingly people seem to be open to. When he comes back, will there still be a push for him to pursue champ-champ status, or is there still work to do at featherweight?
Last week during his UFC Hall of Fame induction speech, Daniel Cormier admitted to using the towel trick from his wrestling days to make weight for his light heavyweight title fight against Anthony Johnson at UFC 210. If you recall, Cormier weighed in initially 1.2 pounds over the championship limit of 205. He came back on a second attempt, made weight and went on to defend his light heavyweight title the following day. This all happened while NOT doing anything to shed the additional weight in between his weigh-in attempts. What are your thoughts on DC’s admission?
Donald Cerrone took his gloves off in the octagon at UFC 276 after losing to Jim Miller. Cerrone said he doesn’t love MMA anymore after 16 years, and Hollywood beckons. How will you remember the “Cowboy”? Do you consider him a UFC Hall of Famer?
“Spinning Back Clique” is released each Tuesday on MMA Junkie’s YouTube channel. You can watch the full episode in the video above.
