Aldo in discussion for best all-time MMA fighter

Jose Aldo. Eric Jamison/AP

Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre and Jon Jones. Those are the three names that kick off most discussions of the greatest fighter of all-time. Pride loyalists will throw Fedor Emelianenko’s name out there, someone invariably will stump for Sakuraba and the joker in the group will start rattling off names that have no business being in the conversation, just to rile everyone else up.

“Randy Couture! Ken Shamrock! Forrest Griffin!”

The one name that doesn’t come up as frequently as it should is Jose Aldo.

Whether it’s because he began his ascension inside the little blue cage of the WEC (Never Forget!) or because he fights south of the 155-pound threshold that prompts some fans to pretend like his accomplishments and talents are less impressive, the reigning UFC featherweight champion has put together as impressive a resume as nearly anyone competing in the sport today and deserves far more consideration for a place in the pantheon of all-time greats than he gets.

Heading into his championship rematch with Chad Mendes on Saturday, Aldo sports a 24-1 record, a 17-fight winning streak and a perfect 14-0 mark under the Zuffa banner. He has successfully defended the featherweight title eight times and has only ever fought in championship bouts since migrating to the UFC.

Since bursting onto the scene at WEC 34 with a second-round stoppage win over Alexandre Franca Nogueira, Aldo has earned victories over (takes big, deep breath) Cub Swanson, Mike Brown, Urijah Faber, Manny Gamburyan, Mark Hominick, Kenny Florian, Chad Mendes, Frankie Edgar, Chang Sung Jung and Ricardo Lamas.

Oh yeah, he’s also the longest reigning UFC champion on the roster, having been grandfathered in as the first 145-pound champ in UFC history on Nov. 20, 2010, four months before Jon Jones decimated Mauricio “Shogun” Rua to ascend to the top of the light-heavyweight division.

But even that stat is a little misleading and doesn’t do Aldo’s greatness justice, as he won the featherweight title from Mike Brown a year earlier at WEC 44. While many only started to recognize his dominance once it was UFC gold wrapped around his waist, Aldo earned the distinction as the best featherweight in the world the night he stopped Brown in Las Vegas and hasn’t looked back since.

Some people will want to argue that his pre-UFC successes don’t carry over or hold as much value, that doesn’t make any sense.

Dominick Cruz is considered one of the top bantamweights in the world because he established himself as such in the WEC prior to driving that point home when he moved to the UFC. Additionally, perennial contender and fan favourite Faber is regarded as one of the top competitors south of the 155-pound weight class largely based on his success in the WEC, a run that included getting hobbled by Aldo at WEC 48.

If WEC success helps buoy “The Dominator” and his nemesis “The California Kid,” those same standards have to apply to Aldo as well.

This weekend, Aldo has the opportunity to add a second win over Mendes to his resume on Saturday when the two meet in the main event of UFC 179 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. If he retains his title, Aldo will celebrate five years as the undisputed top featherweight in the world and four years as the UFC champion.

Only Silva and St-Pierre have managed to hold on to UFC gold longer.

But Aldo’s case for being included in the discussion of the sport’s all-time greats extends beyond the stats and streaks contained on his resume and into his actual performance inside the cage.

What really makes the Nova Uniao product stand out is the fact that despite facing a Murderer’s Row of top contenders fight after fight, Aldo has never really been in a situation where you thought the championship was going to change hands.

Over the course of eight consecutive successful title defences, the champion has lost maybe five rounds, six at the most. In many of those cases, Aldo was home and cooled on the scorecards and dropped the final frame as he did against Hominick in Toronto and most recently Lamas at UFC 169 in February.

While his fight with Edgar was closer than any of his other championship tilts, there was no point where you thought “The Answer” had Aldo on the ropes. The former lightweight titleholder stood his ground, had his moments and took a round or two on the cards, but when the final horn sounded to end the fight, it was clear that the featherweight title was once again going back to Brazil.

Most will agree that Mendes has shown marked improvement since his first attempt to claim UFC gold ended in the waning seconds of the opening round of the UFC 142 main event–his striking is much better and he’s more confident and comfortable inside the Octagon. Though the declaration has been greatly overused to hype up less interesting battles, the Team Alpha Male standout and consensus No. 1 contender is set to be Aldo’s toughest test to date.

If Aldo’s able to get his hand raised in the centre of the Octagon once again and pick up his ninth straight successful title defence–one shy of Silva’s record–Aldo will have to be included in all future discussions about the greatest fighters this sport has ever seen.


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