Welcome to “Spinning Back Clique,” MMA Junkie’s weekly show that takes a quick spin through the biggest topics in mixed martial arts. This week, host Simon Head is joined by panelists Brian “Goze” Garcia from MMA Junkie Radio, as well as MMA Junkie’s Nolan King and Danny Segura. We did something different this week, putting out some bold statements coming out of UFC 257 and asking: Overreaction or on the money? Let’s get into it!

• Dustin Poirier came up with a huge TKO victory over Conor McGregor in the UFC 257 main event. It means McGregor still hasn’t beaten a quality opponent since November 2016. Statement: Conor McGregor will never win a UFC title again. Overreaction or on the money?
• On the flip side of the UFC 257 main event, Poirier is riding high after avenging his 2014 loss to McGregor, and he now has wins over five former world champions on his resume. There was no title on the line in the McGregor rematch, but Poirier is considering himself the king of 155. Statement: After his performance at UFC 257, Dustin Poirier is the uncrowned UFC lightweight champion. Overreaction or on the money?
• Also at UFC 257, Michael Chandler made a huge statement about his status as one of the lightweight division’s elite fighters by taking out contender Dan Hooker inside the first round. It was one heck of a UFC debut for the former three-time Bellator champion. Statement: Michael Chandler deserves an immediate title shot after that win over Dan Hooker. Overreaction or on the money?
• The shadow of Khabib Nurmagomedov hung over UFC 257 after UFC president Dana White indicated before the show that Khabib would consider fighting whomever did something spectacular. Then after the event, White didn’t sound optimistic about Khabib coming out of retirement – even though both Poirier and Chandler did something spectacular. Statement: The Khabib sweepstakes were all a hoax, and it was just about setting up Khabib vs. McGregor 2, and nothing else. Overreaction or on the money?

Hope you enjoy this week’s show. Watch Episode 64 of “Spinning Back Clique” above.

Breaking, Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Michael Chandler, UFC 257, video, Featured, News, Radio Highlight, UFC, Videos

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/01/ufc-257-mcgregor-vs-poirier-overreactions-show-spinning-back-clique

John Kavanagh wasn’t shocked to see Dustin Poirier utilize calf kicks in his bout against Conor McGregor at UFC 257, but the SBG Ireland head coach did admit that the devastating effect of those kicks certainly caught them by surprise as Poirier handed McGregor the first TKO loss of his career in Abu Dhabi.

Speaking to ESPN in the aftermath of the fight, Kavanagh revealed just how debilitating Poirier’s kicks were as what looked like a positive start to the fight for McGregor ended abruptly in the second round.

Immediately after the fight, McGregor pointed to inactivity as one of the key factors in his defeat before revealing just how damaging Poirier’s kicks were. Kavanagh agreed but said that even additional training wouldn’t have fully prepared his man for the kicks he took.

“He does so much sparring that you hope that there’s not going to be ring rust, because he’s getting the rounds in,” Kavanagh said. “But again, somewhat ironically, this particular technique is one that is almost impossible to replicate.

“The fact that Dustin threw it is not that surprising. It was certainly part of our training, to deal with leg kicks. How devastating a technique it was somewhat caught us out. In the gym, when you’re throwing that technique, you’re not trying to kick your partner as hard as you possibly can, and you’re also wearing shin pads, kick pads. … You can build up a false confidence – ‘I feel it, but it’s not that bad.’ Then it’s only in fighting that you get tiny gloves and no shin pads.

“From October 2018, coming up two-and-a-half years almost, he had 40 seconds of feeling what kicks feel like with no pads on, and punches with four-ounce gloves. So, yeah, that is one thing you cannot replicate.”

Kavanagh said he was generally happy with how things were going when McGregor returned to the corner at the end of Round 1. He’d been taken down, but Kavanagh was encouraged by the way McGregor reacted to it and fought his way back to his feet without taking damage, and also took heart from McGregor’s lack of fatigue after an action-packed opening five minutes.

“I took a lot of positivity from it,” Kavanagh said. “He’s clearly not feeling even the beginning of tiredness. I felt at the end of Round 1, this is probably going to be a long fight, because he landed a couple of shots. I thought there was once or twice where Dustin wobbled a little bit, so the finish would come, but let’s not chase it. Let’s not get too over-excited, and if we’re going to be doing three, four, five rounds, it’s nice to see at the end of Round 1 that he doesn’t even have to sit down.

“I thought by the end of Round 1, that’s kind of it now for takedowns. Now it’s a kickboxing battle, and (from) the shots I saw from Round 1, Conor got the better of him. So, going into the second I thought, energy’s great, probably takedown attempts are if not over, Conor’s very switched on (to them). … So we’re going to start going into a nice kickboxing battle, and Conor’s one of the best in the world at that. But then those damn, pesky, peroneal nerve kicks.”

The technique of hammering the lower leg has become a go-to weapon for fighters in recent years, with the damage caused by the kicks producing some positive results. Notably, Brent Primus used the technique to great effect to defeat Michael Chandler at Bellator NYC in June 2017, with his kicks causing Chandler to lose the ability to control his foot as he repeatedly rolled his ankle. That “drop-foot” phenomenon didn’t happen to McGregor on fight night, but the effective use of his leg certainly deteriorated after Poirier’s repeated kicks.

(Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)

As Kavanagh explained, it doesn’t take many powerful kicks to the right spot to have a huge effect on the recipient’s mobility and stability.

“It’s one of those techniques that really two or three, maybe maximum four proper, clean connections, and that’s it,” Kavanagh said. “If anybody’s experienced cracking your elbow and you hit that funny nerve – that electric shock you get is similar. It’s nerve damage rather than like a sore muscle or a body shot, or something you can get through, you know? You just can’t.

“It’s on or it’s off. The bottom half of the leg is off, and when (McGregor) kind of slipped the shot and Dustin caught him with a nice uppercut, he went to transfer his body weight onto the right leg, and it just gave (way), and he just went down, and that was the end of that. So we definitely have to fix that.”

Kavanagh’s famous mantra, which became the title of his book, is “win or learn,” and he’s already using the loss, and close-up experience of seeing the effectiveness of Poirier’s low leg kicks, to ensure his man is better prepared and more dangerous the next time he sets foot inside the octagon.

“We’re, as usual, an obsessive personality,” Kavanagh said. “Because it was over before lunchtime, we had the day together to talk about it. We had discussed (low kicks) in the training camp. Like I said, (we were) not surprised by the kicks being thrown, but very surprised by the effectiveness of the technique. So we will add it to our arsenal.

“I thought we did well in pretty much every other part of the fight. I would have loved to have seen a couple more rounds, some grappling exchanges and some more punches back and forward, because he needs more time in the cage. What did we get? Seven-and-a-half minutes in that fight? So we’re racking up the minutes. I hope there’s a lot more minutes this year.”

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/01/ufc-257-conor-mcgregor-coach-john-kavanagh-talks-dustin-poirier-leg-kicks

UFC Hall of Famer BJ Penn has been arrested again in Hawaii.

Penn, 42, was arrested on Jan. 23 under suspicion of Driving Under the Influence. Police were alerted to Penn by a reckless driver complaint, according to Hawaii County Police spokesperson Denise Laitinen.

Laitinen said he was released pending an investigation and provided no further details of the incident.

News of Penn’s latest run-in with the law surfaced via a video posted to Reddit. The video shows Penn in restraints being loaded into a police vehicle, all the while shouting and cursing.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor have a storied past, but Mayweather ripped into him again following McGregor’s UFC 257 knockout loss to Dustin Poirier.

Mayweather and McGregor took jabs at each other on social media until it eventually led to the Irishman’s first professional boxing bout, opposite the undefeated boxing great.

McGregor lasted into the tenth round, but that’s where Mayweather stopped him via technical knockout.

Prior to the fight with Poirier, McGregor had been talking about a potential return to boxing to fight Manny Pacquiao.

After Poirier knocked McGregor out in the second round of Saturday’s pay-per-view headliner, Mayweather took a hard shot at McGregor via Instagram.

“I seen this post and my take on it is that the world knows Con Artist McLoser can steal everything from me and be loved but I’m hated. That just lets you all know that racism still exist.

“Just know, that bum will never be me or be on my level. I’m just built different, my mindset is on another planet, my skills are second to none, I’m a natural born winner and yes I talk a lot of trash, but every time I back it up! This is what they hate.

“It’s sad that you can be a poor black kid from the ghetto that has dealt with racism your whole life and work extremely hard to put yourself and your family in a better position, and most of the hate come from my own people.

“Connor cannot even win in his own sport, but talking about coming back to boxing to fight Pacquiao. Nobody wants to see that, it’s like my leftovers eating leftovers.”

Floyd Mayweather

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Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/floyd-mayweather-rips-conor-mcgregor-aka-con-artist-mcloser-following-ufc-257-knockout

Breaking, Daniel Torres, Guto Inocente, KSW 58, Martin Zawada, Michal Andryszak, Salahdine Parnasse, Shamil Musaev, Szymon Kolecki, Uros Jurisic, News

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/01/ksw-58-featherweight-title-clash-headlines-eight-fight-card-in-lodz