The White Belt MMA Podcast, 12.9.13: UFC Fight Night 33, UFC on Fox 9 and Lloyd Irvin

Welcome to The White Belt MMA Podcast, a weekly look at the biggest topics in the MMA world.

In this edition of the podcast, we recap a very exciting UFC Fight Night: Hunt vs. Bigfoot event, preview the upcoming UFC on Fox: Johnson vs. Benavidez II card, discuss a couple of critical matchups announced for UFC 170 and examine a controversial article about trainer Lloyd Irvin.

Where does the knockout loss put Pat Barry (now 5-7 in the UFC) in the heavyweight division, or for that matter in the promotion altogether? What must Ryan Bader do to restore the luster to his once-very-promising light heavyweight career, and who did he remind me of as he pounded away on Anthony Perosh on Friday night? Mauricio “Shogun” Rua made a return to relevance at 205 in a big way with his knockout of James Te Huna, but can he get past the crowded pool of other light heavyweight contenders to get one more shot at the belt? Mark Hunt and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva put on one of the best heavyweight performances in UFC history, but why should Hunt be considered more of a contender?

Chad Mendes and Joseph Benavidez are the two best fighters in their respective weight classes, without a doubt … except for the truly dominant champions that rule at 145 (Jose Aldo) and 125 (Demetrious Johnson), respectively. Will either be able to earn another run at their divisions’ titles? And what about their teammate Urijah Faber? Can he have a late-career renaissance and return once more to an MMA throne, or will Michael McDonald use him as a stepping stone in his own bantamweight campaign?

We’ll answer these questions, and talk about much more on this episode of the White Belt MMA Podcast. As always, follow the podcast on Twitter @mmapodcast and look for past episodes on The MMA Corner and iTunes.

Click below to listen to this week’s episode. Thanks for listening!