Jose Aldo - The King of Rio
Towards the end of 2019 I wrote a little piece listing who I thought were the top 5 pound for pound fighters in UFC history, where I put Georges St. Pierre and Jon Jones at joint 1st. A few months later, some important fights have happened and I've also gone back and re visited the fight library of some fighters who might actually deserve that title over the aforementioned legends. Anyway, this one might be a bit longer than some of my previous work so bear with me. In essence, what you're about to read is an apology to who I now have to admit is the best MMA fighter I've ever seen: Jose Aldo.
During his tenure in the WEC Jose was as aggressive as any fighter on the roster. Who could forget the 8 second flying knee knockout against Cub Swanson? Or the sight of him mounted on a prone Mike Brown, pasting shots into the side of his head en route to winning the title for the first time. In 8 fights under the WEC banner only Urijah Faber was able to go the distance and believe me, he was lucky to do so. Was the UFC version of Jose as aggressive? Maybe not. He only had 2 finishes in his 7 UFC title defences so you could definitely make an argument that he became a bit more risk averse in his approach, as dominant champions sometimes do (GSP, Jones). Whether or not you agree is neither here nor there. What I know for sure is that the UFC version of Aldo was more polished, more battle tested and had many more wrinkles to his game. His boxing and overall fight IQ taking major leaps as foot and knee injuries eroded the effectiveness and volume of his kicking game, making him more reliant on his hands. We've never seen any fighter pitch so many lop sided shut outs on the scorecards against elite level of competition as Jose, which is something we seldom saw in the WEC because no one ever made it to the cards. Even with a different method, Jose was still able to win just as impressively in my eyes. Even his sternest test against Chad Mendes at UFC 179, all 3 judges scored it 49-46 in his favour.
At the time of Aldo's ascension it was rare we ever saw such an explosive striker with that much muscle in the lower weight classes. His combination of fast twitch muscles and reactive techniques made him one of the most lethal counter strikers the sport has ever seen. The strength of his counter punching leaned heavily on him having what I think are the best defensive skills in MMA history. Head movement, leg kick checks, parries, slips and catches. He could do it all and he routinely did it all. In his prime he was perfect at neutralizing his opponents strengths. Manvel Gamburyan was a legitimate world class grappler and he could barely close the distance on Jose let alone take him down. Similar to Urijah Faber whose beating at the hands of Aldo has become part of MMA folklore. Former UFC Lightweight Champion and all time great Frankie Edgar went a combined 2 for 22 on takedown attempts across two fights with Aldo. What about Mark Hominick? One of the sports most polished boxers at the time struggled to get any consistent offence going against Aldo, not withstanding a 5th round where Aldo was gassed and clearly comfortably up on the cards.
Then we move onto pace. Aldo's ability to manage the pace of a fight was impeccable, again, the best I've ever seen. Being equally comfortable both in the pocket and at distance, he didn't mind where the fight took place. In black and white it's almost as if he'd let his opponents choose where the fight would play out in exchange for forcing them to fight at his tempo. Eventually his opponents would either get frustrated and give him counter opportunities (Korean Zombie) or they'd turn into a statue and let Aldo tee off on them (Faber). The way he did this was masterful in its approach but pretty simple on it's face. One of my favourite examples of this is his fight against Johnathan Brookins at WEC 36. The six foot tall, awkward southpaw Brookins had a clear plan: Stay on the outside and set up the left with lead hand strikes. Jose was fine with him being on the outside, but he wasn't about to let him connect with his rear hand and he wasn't about to let him stay on the outside for free. When he wasn't battering him with leg kicks, he was throwing out educated feints and whenever Brookins would react and try to close the distance with strikes, Jose got the reads and countered. This beating went on for 10 minutes, those of you who have seen that fight remember Brookins stretching in his corner trying to regain feeling in his lead leg. Less than a minute into the 3rd round, Brookins lunged in with a desperate, looping lead hook. Jose slipped and caught him with a crisp straight right dropping him and ending the fight with ground strikes.
Jose's ethos was clear. If you wanted to fight in the pocket he'd use his refined strike selection, elite head movement (some of the best I've seen in combat sports ever, forget MMA) and an effective high guard. If you wanted it at distance he was a master at cutting off the cage with measured, deft lateral steps, blasting off outside leg kicks as often as he pleased and if he decided he wanted to close the distance, he would. At will. Just ask Ricardo Lamas how much that charging lead hook to the body, outside leg kick combo hurts. To be candid, in the peak of his powers he was the best leg kicker in the game. He'd use high volume leg kicks and deft feints to bait his opponents into walking into his counters ala Justin Gaethje (with even better defence and without the tendency of initiating suicidal pocket exchanges). What sets him apart from other prolific leg kickers like Edson Barboza or Joanna Jędrzejczyk was his ability to use them not only as lead strikes but as counter strikes too. He was also able to consistently put them on the end of instinctive combinations, whether he was countering or hunting.
Jose's career has very much been on the down since his glory in that classic fight against Chad Mendes in 2014. While I'm definitely not about to ignore that, his skill set and everything he accomplished (10 years undefeated, 6 years as champ and 9 title defences). earns him a mulligan. No one in MMA history has ever had a deeper set of skills. No one in MMA history has fought a higher quality of opponent and no one in MMA history has more wins over top quality fighters. Legends must die one day, even in his twilight years he was able to go toe to toe with the scariest guy in the 135 lb division. Oh yeah, did I mention that he finished Johnathan Brookins, Rolando Perez, Chris Mickle, Cub Swanson and Mike Brown all within 12 months? Newer or younger fans might not fully appreciate what Aldo once meant to the sport but hear this, when you talk about Jose, regardless of the subject, make sure you preface his name with three words - The Best Ever.
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Written by @AtlaslaMaquina on Twitter
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