Jose Aldo and Marlon Vera went the full 10 minutes in a submission-only grappling match Sunday night (Oct. 4) at Hype Fighting Championship in Quito, Ecuador, and neither man found a finish. The bout headlined the card at Coliseo General Rumiñahui and was ruled a draw when time expired. The two embraced afterward.
Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting laid out how it unfolded, and it was not a frantic affair. Vera spent the first five minutes trying to get a takedown while Aldo parked himself in the corner and shut down every entry. Vera eventually waved Aldo out to the middle of the ring, and the former UFC champion responded by pulling guard. The single dangerous moment came when Vera sat back for a heel hook. Aldo got out of it, and that was the closest anyone came to a tap.
For Vera, this was a homecoming. It was his first competition in his native Ecuador since 2012, which made him the obvious crowd favorite in Quito.
It was also a rematch of sorts. Aldo beat Vera by decision at UFC Vegas 17 in late 2020, so his ledger against “Chito” now reads one MMA win and one grappling draw. MMA Mania’s Jesse Holland noted Vera finally got his second crack at Aldo, just with a lot less punching involved.
The two men are in very different spots. Aldo retired from the UFC in May 2025, though he has said he remains open to boxing. Vera, 33 and seven years younger than Aldo, is coming off a TKO win over Charles Jourdain at UFC 331 in Los Angeles last month, a result that put him back in the win column.
The co-main event had its own drama. Colby Covington, the former UFC interim welterweight champion and current RAF titleholder, was booked for a submission-only match against local fighter Mayton Perea. Covington never made it to the ring, and Juan Albarello replaced him at the last minute. Hype did not say why Covington was out. Perea, who signed with the UFC in September after a 45-second knockout on Dana White’s Contender Series, saw his match end by foot americana in just over two minutes.
Cruz didn’t hide his feelings about the format. “Why do we keep booking MMA fighters in sub-only grappling matches when matches pretty much suck 9 out of 10 times?” he wrote on X.
He has a point, and this match is Exhibit A. Sub-only rules with no points and no penalty for stalling reward exactly what Aldo did for five minutes: stand in a corner with the best takedown defense of his generation and wait. That’s smart defense, and it’s dull to watch. The guard pull was a courtesy more than a strategy. Credit to Vera for being the one who tried to make something happen, and for going to the legs, because the heel hook is the only attack that ever looked like it could end things. If promoters want these exhibitions to land, they need a ruleset that punishes the corner. Otherwise you get 10 minutes, one leg lock attempt and a hug.
