Spinning Back Clique: Israel Adesanya’s legacy, Tai Tuivasa’s title path, ‘Free Joe Rogan,’ 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, our panel of “Gorgeous” George Garcia, Brian “Goze” Garcia and Nolan King discuss these five topics with host John Morgan:
- Israel Adesanya defended his middleweight title for the fifth time this past Saturday in the UFC 271 main event. After his win over former champion Robert Whittaker, whom he beat to win the belt in 2019, Adesanya rated himself a 7 of 10. What did our panelists take away from the performance of the man who says he’s the second highest-paid fighter in the UFC behind Conor McGregor?
- With his second title loss to Adesanya, Whittaker had a better performance than their first go-’round but still came up short. Whittaker thinks a third title fight with the champ is inevitable. How long will it take for him to get there, and what should he do moving forward to help ensure a different outcome if he gets another crack at it?
- Tai Tuivasa pulled off the biggest win of his career at UFC 271 when he knocked out Houston hometown hero Derrick Lewis in rather brutal fashion. After he put Lewis face first into the canvas, UFC president Dana White said Tuivasa’s name deserves to be right up there with heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou, former champ Stipe Miocic and former light heavyweight titleholder Jon Jones. Has Tuivasa moved past being the fun fighter who drinks beer out of a shoe when he wins and into title material?
- One noticeable absence at UFC 271 was commentator Joe Rogan, who has found himself under all kinds of fire in recent weeks for multiple past incidences of N-word use on his podcast, as well as a large camp in the medical profession wanting Spotify to crack down on him for COVID-19 misinformation in the form of guests on his show. White said Rogan not working UFC 271 was not a corporate decision by Disney, which owns ESPN, the UFC’s broadcast partner. Regardless of why, was Rogan taking the pay-per-view off the right move?
- It’ll be a busy week for MMA fans. The PFL’s Challenger Series kicks off Friday. And Saturday, Bellator 274 goes down in Connecticut on the same night UFC Fight Night 201 takes place in Las Vegas. Who are we going to be talking about Monday morning?
“Spinning Back Clique” is released each Tuesday on MMA Junkie’s YouTube channel. You can watch the full episode in the video above.
Spinning Back Clique: Israel Adesanya’s legacy, Tai Tuivasa’s title path, ‘Free Joe Rogan,’ more
