As a devout and lifelong Philadelphia Eagles fan, Bill Algeo felt it was necessary to use his time on the microphone following a win at UFC Kansas City to get a little payback for his favorite football team.
This past Saturday night, Algeo took home Fight of the Night honors for his submission win over T.J. Brown, but it was his antics afterward that got him even more attention. After removing his gloves as if he was about to announce his retirement, Algeo swerved so he could deliver a post-fight speech aimed directly at the crowd in Kansas City.
“I want to make this official announcement — I am not retiring, baby!” Algeo shouted. “They’re going to have to drag my carcass out of here. I would never retire in a dump like Kansas City. I look around here and all I see is a bunch of Croc wearing, Uber Eats driving, Bud Light drinking, Dalai Lama licking sons of guns. I ain’t never retiring!”
According to Algeo, his post-fight speech was definitely orchestrated after he watched his beloved Eagles fall to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII back in February.
In fact, Algeo says he wanted to get a unique chant started in the arena but he wasn’t sure the Kansas City crowd could follow along.
“I was going to start an Eagles chant but I was afraid they wouldn’t be able to spell it,” Algeo said on The MMA Hour. “I’ve been born and raised around the Philadelphia area, so that’s my team. It’s pretty much the only sport I watch other than [MMA].”
While he’s not an avid follower these days, Algeo admits he grew up watching professional wrestling, so that played a part in his decision to turn heel and see just how angry he could make the crowd with his post-fight antics.
He planned exactly what he wanted to say to the crowd afterward, although it appears he actually didn’t go quite as far as he initially expected.
“That was the edited version,” Algeo said. “We kind of just kind of made it up [ourselves]. Hair-sniffing was in there, we had a couple different schticks.
“I thought it would be funnier instead of playing to the crowd, I start making fun of them and see where it goes from there. I asked my cornermen if they were selling glass beverages out in the audience because I had to keep my head on a swivel out there.”
It turns out, Algeo’s ties to pro wrestling actually go much deeper than just his promo from this past weekend.
His nickname — “Senor Perfecto” — was adapted from the character “Mr. Perfect” as portrayed by Curt Hennig during his career in World Wrestling Entertainment.
“I was [a big pro wrestling fan] back in the day growing up,” Algeo said. “I liked ‘Mr. Perfect.’ I liked ‘The Million Dollar Man’ [Ted DiBiase], and Razor Ramon, all the classics. Not as an adult. I’ve been pretty focused on this sport, but I’m a big fan.”
As much as Algeo expected to possibly get rained on by debris or people shouting obscenities at him as he left the cage, he was surprisingly able to get the crowd back on his side.
“Basically, I wasn’t sure what kind of reviews I was getting, and then I had my gloves still off so I was acting like I was going to throw them in the crowd and they started going nuts for it,” Algeo said. “So as soon as you start offering them free stuff, the crowd went crazy for me.
“So I had them, I made fun of them and lost them and then I got them back. I threw out a glove, I threw out the other glove, and then I threw out my shirt too. Hands are always out.”
It was a fun bit of theater, but more importantly, Algeo got the win and improved his record to 3-1 over his past four fights. He also took home his third post-fight bonus since joining the UFC roster in 2020. Now Algeo wants to build on the performance as he moves ahead for the rest of the year.
“The skills are there,” Algeo said. “The better fighter doesn’t always win every night, so you’ve still got to go out there and do it. I was doing good against [Andre] Fili until I got my arm broke, and then it was like just in survival mode.
“But other than that, it’s been a good run the last couple of fights, so I’m hoping to keep that momentum going.”
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