Eric J Herrholz
Sep 30, 20223 min
Guido Cannetti's perspective on his life's work and his professional fighting career has significantly improved.
After experiencing discouraging losses, the 42-year-old UFC bantamweight struggled for many years to feel happy and content with his MMA career. Cannetti (9-6 MMA, 3-5 UFC), who will make another appearance in the cage this Saturday against Randy Costa (6-3 MMA, 2-3 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 211, is content and at peace with both his career accomplishments and what may lie ahead.
Mentally speaking, Cannetti has now reached the location he has been looking for for a very long time, a sensation that eluded him for a very long time.
“Man, we’ve done interviews with me crying and others like today where I’m feeling my best, I’m happy, smiling, and giving it my all,” Cannetti told MMA Junkie in Spanish.
“With that alone, I’m at peace. Feeling great, that for me, it’s glory – being able to get to where I wanted to get and how I wanted to feel. Because I just wasn’t able to find a way to show up in a way where I could feel good and give it 100 percent. Now that I’m doing it, I feel joyful. I know Randy Costa is going to fight the best Guido ever.”
After his most recent match in March, Cannetti saw a complete turnaround. The Argentine was able to end a three-fight losing record that lasted nearly four years with a first-round TKO victory over a strong Kris Moutinho.
Cannetti felt like he was competing for his UFC job because he hadn't won a fight since 2018. The real sense of emancipation, though, came from how Cannetti felt inside the cage, not from being the winner.
Cannetti believed he was underperforming and never thought he lived up to expectations, even in his UFC victories. Cannetti had high hopes when he joined the UFC after fighting in The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America's inaugural season.
He began to question his ability to compete at the UFC level because of a peculiar sensation.
Cannetti finally felt like himself after making drastic changes to his diet and training regimen before his most recent bout, and it was all he could have hoped for.
Cannetti said, "In this final one, I showed up like never before. "I felt fantastic. And for this one, I believe I'm entering a bit better, therefore I believe this battle will reveal my true state.
“If I win, then there’s more to give. And if I lose, well, I’m happy with how far I’ve come, but I’ll probably keep training, keep getting better and fight again. This is a decisive fight to see if the Guido that made those changes can continue in this manner or if it was, I don’t know, a luck factor, which I don’t think it was – I truly feel great.”
Even though he is just in his early 40s, Cannetti is in the finest physical shape of his professional life. He is hopeful that this is the beginning of a string of victories that will allow him to call it a day in the ring.
“I hope that things turn out well, I deserve it,” Cannetti said. “Maybe I’m not champion, but I could win a few consecutive fights and end my career with a little more money in the bank, so I could be more at ease and finish feeling happy, which is what I looked for the most.”