Video: Who challenged Alex Pereira for our Male Fighter of the Year?

We’ve wrapped a fascinating 2022 in MMA and we’re not too far away from the first major event of 2023.

But there’s still some time to look back at the year that was in the sport before we start a mad dash for those 2023 year-end awards.

On the first episode of MMA Junkie’s “Spinning Back Clique” in the new year, we looked back at the biggest fighters and biggest fight moments of 2022.

There were plenty of big performances across the MMA landscape this past year, but Alex Pereira was our Male Fighter of the Year after his UFC middleweight title win over Israel Adesanya. But who was in the conversation if we didn’t go with Pereira? Our panel of Brian “Goze” Garcia, Nolan King and Danny Segura discussed the other candidates who made a case for the honor.

Check out their discussion in the video above. Then don’t miss the full episode below.

“Spinning Back Clique” is released each Monday LIVE on MMA Junkie’s YouTube channel.