Jose Aldo's UFC 136 performance shows he's not Top 5 P4P just yet
Posted on October 9, 2011, 01:19 PM by Anton Gurevich
Jose Aldo defended his UFC Featherweight title for second consecutive time with a Unanimous Decision victory over Kenny “Ken-Flo” Florian in the co-main event of the stacked UFC 136 fight card. But in a night highlighted by Chael Sonnen’s triumphant return to the Octagon and Frankie Edgar’s inspiring comeback, Jose Aldo’s performance inside the left a lot to be desired.
Aldo’s poor gas tank during “championship rounds” almost cost him a title against Mark Hominick at UFC 129, and probably would have cost him a title if not Kenny Florian’s refusal to go for broke last night in Houston, Texas. Challenger’s corner were screaming and shouting “he’s tired!” as the fight went to distance, but unfortunately for “Ken-Flo”, he was unable to capitalize on Jose Aldo’s lack of conditioning.
The truth of the matter is that Jose Aldo needs to cut a decent amount of weigh to get down to Lightweight, not speaking about Featherweight. Those weight cuts have a negative effect on the Brazilian’s performance inside the Octagon and raise some questions about his legitimacy as Top 5 Pound for Pound MMA fighter on the planet.
More than that, fighters like Dominick Cruz, Jon Jones, Georges St. Pierre, Anderson Silva and Frankie Edgar all displayed “superhero” abilities in their most recent fights, retaining their titles in a very much convincing fashion. Aldo’s performances against Mark Hominick and Kenny Florian don’t fall under the same category, making him “out of order” when it comes to Top 5 lists.
Yahoo! CageWriter’s Steve Cofield seems to share the same idea:
Featherweight champ Jose Aldo was an unstoppable force on his way up through the WEC. Now that Aldo has arrived in the UFC, and he isn't running through opponents anymore, you have to ask - did many in the media and some fans push Aldo into MMA's top five pound-for-pound rankings too quickly? It looks like it.
With the addition of new fighters from around the world and some former lightweights dropping down to featherweight, Aldo (20-1-1, 2-0 UFC) has a lot to get done before he should be legitimately mentioned amongst the elite of the elite.
Don’t get me wrong, Jose Aldo is a fantastic fighter, but he’s clearly not the third-best behind Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre. There’s no doubt about Aldo having the potential to become one of the greatest fighters ever, but personally, I feel like the expectations from the 25 year old Brazilian are currently way too high. Let's see how he does against Chad Mendes.
Further Reading: UFC 136 Recap and Notes
Comments
Jose's eating to many life time burger king whoppers with anderson silva
how can you guys weak him,that was hilarious lol
I have to disagree He showed he never was in danger to a much larger and well rounded Florian. Its ok for GSP to outclass but no for Aldo? Only reason Kenny took any rounds is because he was holding Aldo against the cage and stalling he never did any damage, he just wanted to turn it into a wrestling match.
Exactly, Im not sure what Anton or this Yahoo guy are reaching for.
Kenflo was doing some clinches against the cages and was successful with takedowns a few times but majority Aldo shrug off. And if he did get taken down, he got up like nobody's business.
you cant finish them all. Aldo deserves to be top 5 p4p.
Cause he has Lightweight that he can still tear through. Hes got superior striking, superior takedown defense, backup BJJ. Hes a complete fighter, and would be a force in the LW division. Not to mention hes already the FW champ
I agree. Aldo has beaten guys that have a diverse set of skills, and I only see him getting better. Chad Mendes will be an amazing test though, cause that guy is relentless and well conditioned. If Aldo wins that fight, I definitely would consider him a top 3 p4p fighter, if he isn't already.
I don't see that Chad Mendes has anything to offer that Urijah Faber didn't - other than being maybe a little bigger and stronger - and Aldo destroyed him. His wrestling skills are great, but so are Faber's, and I don't think his striking is as good as Faber's.
I have to disagree with you on that one. Mendes is pretty much a better version of Uriah IMO. Bigger, faster, stronger, better wrestler, better hands, although his BJJ is not as good as Fabers. Aldo seems very hard to get and keep down, but I beleive Mendes can do it, so the fight may boil down to condtitioning, or Aldo's guard which we havn't seen alot of.
I've been saying this since he beat Faber and Dana starting talking shit. His weight division is still developing, Edgar beat Penn twice which imo is more impressive than anything Aldo has done. Now Edgar has stopped Maynard I don't see how Aldo can continue to get be called top 3 p4p.
I agree w Anton, jose Aldo was never P4P third, i really love his style and amazing talent so even I liked to call him p4p best but the truth is he needs more decisive wins before being called a king.
Aldo was great showed champion qualities. Kenflo came in at his very best ever and was pretty much dominated. Maybe not like faber or others but he had a clinche game which stalls the fight. He could do absolutely nothing with his clinch didn't adapt to his losing game plan. Aldo did everything he could while being Super defensively.
He showed champion spirit. Edgar beating a washed up bj pen (pen is one of my favorite fighters) means very little. Edgar is a great top fighter but for his technique.
Aldo looked great in this fight given florins gameplan. If florian stood and "banged" you would have seen him get ko'd. He was dominated on the ground.
Yeah bull crap. Totally unrelated nonsense.
2 ufc defenses, 2 decisions, never had his opponents in real danger, some rounds were lost, he's 'stalled' at the moment imo, he's not gonna fall while winning fights, but he hasn't been showing enough to climb
Um gsp
gsp is the stall master
When did Florian ever look like he had a chance of winning that fight? Just because Aldo didn't finish him doesn't mean he wasn't convincing. I think Aldo looked to be on a whole other level as a mixed martial artist in comparison to Kenflo. And what made it even more impressive was the fact that Kenny had such a big size advantage and still couldn't impose his will or his gameplan on Aldo.
Nonsense... he is TOP 5 (#4 to be exact... right after GSP) and i agree with Dana on #2 Frankie Edgar... and that's the end of it!
Aldo is a Beast... He will be champion for a very long time..
Idk what you're talking about Anton. I never saw Aldo tired. He rarely got taken down. He was clinched but held it off the whole match. You're reaching.
Aldo needs to jump up to Lightweight and kick Edgar's ass. Edgar's ego and head are getting a little inflated.
Yea no Aldo dominated and defended his title good, not as flashy or impressive as i would have like it to be, but still a good performance...the article writer must have been listening to mike and joe commentating too much, they were riding Florians Sack the wole fight and only mentioning what he did that led no where and not what aldo was doing in defending his title
Well put. Florian was at his career best. But not enough to trouble Aldo. People ride gsp sack but Aldo isn't good enough? The guy has had tough competition.
Aldos performance was better than Cruz's last one either wasnt great but enough to keep the title... Kind of same what GSP vs Shields was
I personally thought Aldo lost a couple of rounds and that if Florian had kept mixing it up like in the first round Aldo would have lost, but I guess all champs have tough nights in their career where they don't look so good. Even so, I agree Aldo doesn't warrant being in the top 3 debate right now. For me it's out of GSP, Edgar, Jones and Silva. Better cases can be made for all of these 4 ahead of Aldo.
You guys all make the same mistake.
I never said Aldo is a bad champion or a bad fighter. But there's a clear difference between him and Cruz, Jones, GSP, Silva, Edgar when it comes to beating his opponents in extraordinary fashion... decisively. That's the difference between being #7 on my P4P list and Top 5.
Wait, what? Cruz, GSP and Edgar hardly ever get a finish. So Aldo went to decision in his last 2 fights... the 1st, he got tired early and the 2nd, well... he couldnt fight his fight because kenflo would take him down if he kicked and get points that way, so played it smart. And despite going to the decision, he did beat these last 2 guys decisively!
theres not really anton, i know that you have a thing for cruz, but hes fighting in by far the weakest division quality wise....as far as aldo goes, i think ur looking for holes wherever you can find them, kenflo had a massive size advantage aswell as being an incredibly skilled mma fighter, and the only thung he could do was hold aldo against the cage and land an odd jab....aldos takedown defence was immense, he tagged kenflo with some incredible combinations, everytime he legkicked kenflo it looked like his leg would come off and he got him in full mount twice....his conditioning isnt incredible but i seem to remember him throwing 4-5 flying knees in the last minutes of the fight, and of course hed be tired, anyone would be after being leaned on by a bigger guy for 5 rounds, which is all kenny managed to do!
WTF Cruz's last two fights havent been extraordinary. GSP didnt look so good against Shields , Silva got beat up by Sonnen, Edgar almost got knocked out, Jones is only one of them who has looked extraordinary in all fights... Aldo looked great but gassed out against Hominick and against Florian he did what he had to never wasnt danger to lose
Silva was the only one who had a legit excuse for his performance against a 4 times higher than normal testosteroned Chael. Every other fight AS was in makes him look like a super star wether it was a show off concert or a dominant victory.
how someone can say that dominick cruz has been beating guys in more extraordinary fashion?? some guys gave his fight against faber to faber. that was the closest championship fight since edgar and maynard had the draw on january. if someone thinks cruz is better on the p4p list than aldo then they should also put faber on a better place than aldo. but that is imposible... what happened when they fought?? aldo destroyed him clearly for 5 rounds. its as simple as that. saying cruz is more extraordinary than aldo is ridiculous. people here should be more objective.
they almost have the same amount of fights. so its easy to compare them. aldo has 2 times more KOs and 1 submission more. aldo has 6 decisions,12 kos and 2 subs and cruz has 12 decisions, 6 kos and 1 sub.
aldo has a 13 afight winning streak and cruz has a 10 fight winning streak.
on their last 5 fights: aldo destroyed brown and KOed him... cruz got the doctor stopage against bowles.
aldo destroyed for 5 rounds on a decision with urijah faber (he didnt get the finish but if he wasnt extraordinary on that fight i dont know what that word means)... cruz had a split decision against benavides.
aldo KOed gamburyan (i can agree he wasnt a great contender)... cruz had a dominant decision against jorgensen (he is a better contender than gamburyan but not by that much)
aldo destroyed for 4 rounds hominick (he had the biggest hematoma ive ever seen) on the last round aldo got destroyed but survived... cruz won a really close fight against faber were he was tagged on the chin 3 times (compared what aldo did to him its ridiculous)
aldo had a dominant decision over a bigger and more experienced fighter, he maybe was a little safe but that was because florian didnt went to fight him... cruz dominated johnson and for many parts of the fight he was losing the stand up match.
and for last, the crowd loves aldo and boos cruz. also the ufc gives aldo great events to fight and gives cruz fight nights. i think that says it all. cruz is a great fighter but he isnt 10% of how extraordinary aldo is. for me aldo is clearly # 5 p4p and the only one that could take his spot will be cain if he beats cigano... in my opinion
sorry guys... that looked like the bible but i had to put the facts!!
p4p rankings are kinda stupid
This is news? He proved it last fight.
Florian hasn't been outclassed by many fighters, but he was outclassed against Aldo. The only round he looked like he was in the fight was the 1st. After that, Aldo' started landing power shots and that was it.
He definitely gassed against Hominick, but against Kenny, I thought he fought smart .
Although Jose is fairly new to the UFC, he was the champ at the WEC since 2009, and it was the best 145 divison on the planet. He beat Faber and Brown, two very talented fighters, in convincing fashion.
But sometimes a high ranking isn't just about how good you are, it's about other people going down in the ranking. Think about the high ranked p4p guys that have slipped since 2009...
Fedor...gone.
BJ...gone.
Silva had a string of unimpressive wins and then almost lost to Sonnen. GSP hasn't been finishing people.
Jones is the first guy in ages to defend the 205 belt.
Edgar is just getting a head of steam up now.
The heavyweight belt's most consistent recent champ was Lesnar of all people.
p4p is subjective. It's hard to get people to even agree on what it means, let alone a ranking.If he isn't in the top 5, what is he? 6th? 7th? It's a fine line to draw...but still fun to argue about.