Guido Cannetti feels he’s hitting finally his stride at 42 years of age.
The UFC bantamweight has never felt better and his recent form in the octagon is proof of that. Cannetti (10-6 MMA, 4-5 UFC) fought this past Saturday at UFC Fight Night 211 where he submitted 28-year-old Randy Costa in a little over a minute. On top of getting his hand raised, Cannetti also left the octagon with a $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus.
Cannetti has been very open in the past with the changes he’s made nutritionally to get to this point. The Argentine, who’s now on a two-fight winning streak with back-to-back first-round finishes, feels he’s in his best career moment.
“I feel better than I felt in my 20s,” Cannetti told MMA Junkie in Spanish. “I’m making money now because before I was losing and with the training costs and all that I wasn’t making money. Now I won this fight, I won the bonus, and I won the fight prior, so now I’m financially a lot more comfortable.
“I want to keep fighting, so I can make money and not only help myself, but the people around me. I want to be more financially stable, and I feel I can achieve more.
“I’d love to fight for the belt. I always had in mind to fight for the title and be UFC champion. At one point I saw it getting away from me a lot. I had fights where it seemed I was on the edge of being cut. Now I’m on a two-fight winning streak, three in my mind, I want to be champion. I see the people fighting for the titles and I think I can fight with them. Obviously, they can beat me, but I want to do it because I feel good. I want to test this Guido at the highest level.”
Guido is adamant that he won his bout against Mana Martinez in August 2021. He officially lost the bout by split decision, but feels like the winner.
Either way, Cannetti would like a ranked opponent next to test his current form and see how far he can get in the division.
“For me, I’m on a three-fight winning streak,” Cannetti said. “I thought I won the fight against Mana Martinez, it was a fight where I got terribly robbed. I think I’m on a three-fight winning streak and I want to fight someone who’s good and gets me closer to the top 10. I want to test myself there. Everyone is good at that level, so I want someone ranked, so I can climb quickly and get close to fight for the belt.”
Being in his early 40s and in arguably the toughest division of the UFC, many may doubt Cannetti and not like his chances of one day fighting for the belt. To those skeptics, Cannetti would like to tell them the infamous words Diego Maradona told reporter Toti Pasman when the Argentine national soccer team qualified for the 2010 World Cup after many expected them to be eliminated by Peru.
“I’d tell them what Maradona told Pasman: ‘You have it inside. Because the one playing for it, and looking to win it, it’s me.'”
