Jose Aldo is past his prime. This much is undeniable. For almost a decade, Aldo ruled the featherweight division as its undisputed final boss, but that reign ended in 2015. His explosion isn’t nearly at the same level anymore. Neither is his cardio. He’s 35 years old and has been fighting professionally for nearly half his life.
And Jose Aldo just beat another top 5 opponent. This isn’t supposed to happen.
We can endlessly debate over who’s the GOAT, and there are plenty of fighters with compelling arguments: Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, Fedor Emelianenko, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Jon Jones, Amanda Nunes to name a few. Aldo is on that list as well. But what I think is inarguable is that we’re witnessing the single greatest post-prime any fighter’s had in the history of mixed martial arts.
Silva and Fedor lost quite a bit after falling off the top of the mountain. GSP retired the moment he appeared to be slipping. Nunes and Jones remains to be seen, but Jones last looked like he was reaching that point himself. Khabib retired at the peak of his powers. There’s no precedent for what Aldo is doing: a legend finding a way to still be great, this deep into the twilight of their career, this long after the end of their dominance.
The shit that Aldo is doing, the wins he’s putting together, is a true miracle. 15 years into his MMA career, Aldo moved DOWN in weight – from the division he’d fought in his entire career, to arguably the most talent-rich one in the entire sport – and has thrived. This isn’t supposed to happen at 135. Flyweight and bantamweight are young men’s divisions, because the speed and the skill requirements are so high. You can see fighters in their late 30s still have a shot at heavyweight, where all you need is to be able to land a bomb. Not here. This isn’t normal.
Saturday’s win over Rob Font wasn’t the cleanest of Aldo’s recent run, but to me it was the most impressive. Font was the liveliest opponent Aldo has faced, on a run of four straight wins that had elevated him into the bantamweight top five. He was also seemingly tailor-made to give Aldo issues. In recent years, Aldo has struggled most against fighters who can keep up a strong pace deep into the fight and wear him down with volume, which is exactly who Font is.
That dynamic, and the huge problems Font posed, became apparent early in the fight. Font was well on his way towards winning the first round, more than tripling Aldo in significant strikes landed heading into the final seconds of the first frame. A few major developments changed everything.
First and foremost, Aldo’s power. It’s funny, but for a guy with 17 career knockouts, Aldo isn’t much of a power puncher. Mostly, those knockouts have come by way of his technical brilliance (and some great kicks and knees). But it seemed like every time Aldo landed against Font, he hurt him. Aldo dropped Font with a straight right in the closing seconds of the first round and nearly finished him, stealing a round that Font had in the bag. Aldo hurt Font a couple of other times in the fight, including a crucial blow in the fifth as Font was getting into a groove against the tired veteran.
Second, Aldo’s legendary leg kicks. Arguably the greatest leg-kicker of all time, Aldo has become much more selective in recent years about when he uses the attack that’s been one of the most memorable staples of his game. The third round was one of those times. It was a big moment. Aldo had just narrowly stolen the first round with that knockdown, and Font had come back to force a competitive second round that he had an argument for winning. The jab and the volume were continuing to give Aldo issues. So longtime coach Andre Pederneiras called for Aldo to let the leg kicks fly. All it took was a few – they landed with such impact that an enormous amount of the wind went out of Font’s sails.
Finally, the reappearance of the strong top game that was long a fixture of Aldo’s game early in his career, but hadn’t been seen much over the last several years. In each of the last three rounds, Aldo got Font to the ground and kept him there, earning over nine total minutes of control time and sealing the deal in each frame. These didn’t come off takedowns – Aldo was 0-1 on those in the fight. They all came as a result of Aldo’s surprisingly large power advantage, as he took advantage of each occasion where he hurt Font.
Aldo is such a master of his craft, and his game has so much depth, that he’s able to find a way to win without really touching some of the things that make him great – we saw relatively little of his terrific body punching, for example. Even though he’s not as marvelously explosive of an athlete anymore, he’s still more than quick enough to match anyone in the division. But even as the physical gifts fade, he has more than enough hard-earned skill and experience to keep him near the top of the heap.
Fighters of Aldo’s age and mileage aren’t supposed to still be this good, especially at such a light weight class. But every time Aldo steps into the cage, he amazes. And every time he steps into the cage, he only further strengthens his case as the greatest fighter of all time.
The Big Fight 