Robert Whittaker, Paulo Costa. That's a good one. What a fight. I want to start off with Paulo Costa because he's a bit of a maniac. He's very inconsistent, but he's hilarious. I spoke to him for the first time last week. He's a nice guy. He's a nice guy. Obviously, a physical specimen. The chin, he never has a mark on him after a fight. Robert Whittaker beat the crap of him, right? Well, they beat the crap out of each other. Whittaker looked like he'd been in a car accident. Paolo Costa looked like he'd still go do a Ricky Martin impression and be on the front cover of a magazine apart from his shinbone. Yeah, That was a phenomenal fight. Robert Whittaker almost got finished at the end of round one. But the speed, the ferocity, the combinations, take it away, Paul Felder.

Yeah, I mean, even at the weigh-ins, I was watching the weigh-ins for that fight, and that's I was like, Yo, Robert Whittaker looks ready to go. You could tell he was ready to come back out and get back into that win column. And he had to overcome a lot to do it because Paulo Costa, he was game. And I'm so happy to see that because look, this dude's fun to watch no matter where or what or who he's fighting. We want him in this division. We want Paulo Costa active. The guy, when he actually makes it to the cage and into the octagon, he's must see fighting. He's entertainment in the press conference in the buildup. He looks great, and he fights great. He's flexible like crazy. Can we talk about the flexibility of this dude? Those kicks.

Those kicks were ridiculous. Hold on. Look at this.

Boom. I mean, dude, that's a picture-perfect spinning hook kick that he landed on the chin, I remember I couldn't believe it. I was here with my buddy Bill, and I'm like, How is he not... That was square on the face, spinning hook kick. With the heel. Perfect time. With the heel.

But the head kicks as well. The The fluidity, the speed. So flexible. Just whips them up.

So good. So I'm just glad to see him. I'm glad to see him back and motivated. And then I saw that he tweeted out that he'll be back. Thank you all for the support. He seems to be like, Yeah, I want to do this. I want to keep fighting. Because the only thing that was in Paulo Costa's way was either the negotiations himself. He wasn't happy with something. We'll probably never truly know what was going on, injuries or contract.

I spoke to one of his coaches last week, a guy called Gregory, I believe. I can't remember his last name. He's a strength and conditioning coach, but also his mind coach. And he was saying they've got his mind right now because there definitely was something a little off. And I was saying on the broadcast, physically, he's a 10 out of 10, A star, whatever you want to call it. He's a prime slab of Brazilian beef. He's got a gas tank as well. If you ask Maria, you're asking for the Paulo Costa cuts. Do you know what I mean? That's the slab of steak that you want. But if the mind's right, and let's remember, he had a break as well. That was like first fight in two years or something. He hasn't had a busy schedule. He's only 32. But we got to talk about Robert Whittaker.

Dude, back. He's back, man. He had to fight hard. He had to dig deep, and he puts himself right back in contention. And things are mixed up in the division. You know what I mean? Israel is not holding that belt at the moment. So he's looking for that rematch eventually, if he can get there, if it's still going to be in the hands of Drikus Dupleci. Things are wide open right now in that division for him. I think another win, right? At least right, though, I think Rob has got to go beat somebody else because Drikus has got the belt. He lost to Drikus. He's also lost to Israel. So haven't I win over Paulo Costa, maybe jump in there, go beat somebody else, and eventually, we can't deny him to get back into that title shot. Rob has been around for Ever. You'd think he's 35 years old, and he's 33 years old. I've been watching him fight, probably in the UFC before I was even thinking about turning pro. That's how long he's been in the UFC. When was his debut in the UFC? Off of the... He was on one of the ultimate fighters, correct?

Smashes, yeah, which I think was like '14, 2014 or '15. I'm going to say something right now, and this sounds really disrespectful to Robert Whitton, but it is It's not. It's not. It is, but it shows how wrong we were. When I fought Luke Rockhold at 199, was it Rockhold? It was somebody in Sydney anyway. I think it was Rockhold. Witzke was on the undercard, and I think he might have fought. What was he called? He had a catchy nickname. It wasn't Derek Brunson. What was his name? He had a weird... Anyway, whatever, regardless. He knocked out Derek Brunson a few years later. Wasn't Derek Brunson, regardless. And he was warming up in the locker room. And Perillo said to me, because he looked... Because Robert's so technical, and he's so good, and he's so skilled. Pound for pound, middleweight division, his skills are as good as we've ever seen. But he didn't look like it in the warm-up room, and this is back in 2014.

Do you know what I mean? 2012 is when he came off of the show.

Buster? Buster, no. Hold on. Let me look at who the hell I'm talking about. Anyway, he's warming up and he looked like garbage. I'm warming up for Rockhold.

Clint Hester.

Clint Hester. What's his nickname? Anyway, whatever. He's warming up and he looked so bad that Perillo whispered to me, he goes, When did we get to fight someone I got that. Do you know what I mean? We're taking on Rockhold, who's an absolute monster. Do you know what I mean? When you get a matchup like that? I'm like, Yeah, no shit. Tell me about it. And now you look at the guy.

It's crazy.

It's unreal. It shows the work he's put in. And by the way, he won that night, and I lost.

That was Clint Headbusser, Hester.

Headbusser. Yeah. I think, and Hamilton, stay on the screen. Tell me what you think. Brian, join the party, if you Sean Strickland, Robert Whittaker, that's the fight to make. That makes all the sense. Everyone, Strickland is very popular. You want to see him back in there. He wants to get back to fight for the belt. Losing it on the first defense doesn't get you an automatic rematch, but a win over Robert Whittaker does. A win over Strickland for Whittaker probably gets him another fight against Izzy O'Drickaus. What do we think? Am I out of my mind?

No, I can't think of anybody else in that top 10 who makes any more sense for Robert Whittaker. I mean, these are two guys with very similar styles. They're very fun to watch, very gritty dudes, fan favorites. And put it in Australia Where Strickland already has a rabid fan base, you're going to have shoes for days out there.

Yeah. Whittaker hasn't lost to anybody that wasn't a champion other than Drikus Duplece, who is now a champion since Steven Wonderboy Thompson in 2014 when he was a welterweight.

Isn't that wild?

I mean, you look at his resume, the guy has been fighting the best, and his only losses are champions, twice to Israel, and then obviously, he lost to Drikus, who is now the middleman. He's definitely elite of elite.

I talked about this a little bit last week, but I want to get your take on it. When I spoke to Whittaker last week, he was saying that he's going to go back to being nasty. He said that's what he was going to do. And I interpreted that maybe because he was short with his answers. You know how it is when you cut your weight and not get it.

That's just how Robert is in fighter meetings, right? He's pretty just matter of fact.

When I first started fighting, I couldn't even remember the fight afterwards because I was just a million miles an hour, a blaze of aggression. You know what I mean? But then as you start to get better, as you start to learn some actual technique, as you start to control your emotions and use strategy and a game plan and all the rest of it, you get a little bit away from the animalistic nature of it at the same time. Do you know what I mean? So that's up here, but your technique is here. And then you come here, and then maybe it goes there. The animalistic nature goes down, but you're getting really technical. Robert was He said he's going to bring the animal side back up. And I think I struggled with that as well. Is that something that you found, Paul?

Yeah. It's funny you're saying because I can remember a point in my career, I think I was coming off a couple close losses where I think, Since I started to do better and you're fighting better guys in an organization like the UFC, where everyone's really good, you talk about you're working with better coaches, you start to strategize more, you start to really hone your technique in, and you get away from what got you to the show. What got you there was because me, and it's similar to you, was just going out there and trying to crack heads. You know what I mean? Just going out there, elbow and knee and throwing big shots. And then that same exact thing. I can remember at one point saying to my friends and family and teammates, I was like, I got to get back to who I was with what I've learned now. Like, okay, it definitely did do that dip where, okay, now I'm trying to be too clean. I'm trying to be too sharp. I'm not doing the craziness. I'm not going for it as much. So, yeah, that is absolutely something that I think a lot of fighters who get to a certain level, and Robert has probably gone up and down through that a few times now because he's been around for so long, fighting the best guys.

Yeah, well, that's what he said he was going to do, go back to that style. He said he was going to get in the face, and he did precisely that. So Robert Whittaker, congratulations.