Spinning Back Clique: World’s best light heavyweights, Fedor’s GOAT status, Jon Jones, 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.

This week, we look at the best light heavyweights in the world, the return of Fedor Emelianenko, Jon Jones’ ban from his longtime gym, Aspen Ladd’s coach’s tactics and the UFC Fight Night 196 main event.

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

• Corey Anderson picked up a big knockout of former champion Ryan Bader to move into the light heavyweight tournament final for a shot at Bellator champ Vadim Nemkov. He also proclaimed himself the best 205-pounder in the world – which UFC champ Jan Blachowicz took issue with. But are Bellator’s light heavyweights better than the UFC’s?

• Fedor Emelianenko returns Saturday at Bellator 269 to take on Tim Johnson in Moscow in his home country of Russia. Fedor long was considered the best heavyweight of all time, but that GOAT status has come into question in recent years. So is he the best heavyweight in MMA history?

• Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, considered arguably the greatest fighter of all time, has been banned from training at his longtime JacksonWink MMA gym in Albuquerque, N.M., in the wake of his latest arrest – this time on domestic violence-related charges. Our panel reacts to that news.

• Aspen Ladd returned for the first time in nearly two years, but never could get rolling against Norma Dumont in a unanimous decision loss in the UFC Fight Night 195 headliner. Before the fourth and fifth rounds, her coach was particularly harsh with her verbally, and it drew a lot of criticism in the MMA world. Did he go too far?

• Paulo Costa takes on Marvin Vettori in the UFC Fight Night 196 main event Saturday. Does the winner have a fast track for a title shot against middleweight champ Israel Adesanya?

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

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Twitter reacts to Corey Anderson's quick TKO of Ryan Bader in Bellator 268 grand prix semifinal