Jose Aldo announced his retirement from the UFC yesterday after 18 years in MMA. During that time, he established himself as the most feared featherweight on the planet – a division over which he ruthlessly reigned for five years. A rare, universally well-liked and respected fighter amongst fans, Aldo will be sorely missed.
Few sporting communities are as divided as MMA fans. Constant fiery debates erupt online over who qualifies as the “Greatest Of All Time”, who deserves to be higher in the pound-for-pound rankings or even who is next in line for a title shot. However, days like yesterday, on which a true legend of the sport hangs up his gloves, we see this often-fragmented fanbase come together.
A consensus contender for “featherweight GOAT”, Aldo will be remembered for ferocious leg-kicks, outstanding takedown defence and a grit and determination which you can only find amongst the most elite athletes.
Perhaps most impressively, Aldo’s career has not been defined by his devastating KO loss to Conor McGregor at UFC 194 – undoubtedly one of the most famous moments in the sport’s history. The Brazilian could easily have slipped from memory as the champion he was, to instead become the “guy that McGregor KO’d in 13 seconds”. Instead, Aldo battled back to win interim featherweight gold at UFC 200, before seeing his coveted title restored to him fully after the Irishman vacated the belt.
He didn’t find himself gatekeeping after his championship days were over, he kept himself in contention; he gave Max Holloway two of the best fights the featherweight division has ever seen at UFC 212 and 218, before facing off against Renato Moicano and current champion Alexander Volkanovski.
The loss to Volkanovski forced Aldo to reconsider his future in the division, with several other featherweights ahead of him for a shot at the title. In nearly all cases, fighters move up to their more ‘natural’ weight when switching divisions, with very few successful examples of fighters going down a weight class.
As he had throughout his career, Aldo took the tougher road and moved down to face Marlon Moraes in a razor-close points defeat, before fighting Petr Yan for the bantamweight belt at UFC 251. Despite being soundly beaten, we saw a classically stubborn Aldo, who gritted his teeth and took serious punishment from a fearsome Russian boxer, despite a savage weight cut and no previous experience at 135 pounds in the UFC. Despite Yan’s comprehensive victory, few could claim that Aldo looked out of place in a UFC title fight nearly three years after his last attempt at winning a championship. He was just beaten by the better fighter on the night.
Some eyebrows were raised, given that Aldo may seem a little on the young side to hang up the gloves at just 36, but he has been fighting for titles in the UFC since 2011 and the calibre of opponent he has consistently faced in that time forces even more respect for the man. His CV is as impressive as any in the UFC – bar perhaps Jon Jones. Urijah Faber, Alexandre Nogueira, Jonathan Brookins, Chad Mendes, Kenny Florian, Frankie Edgar – and those are just fights he took before 2014!
Looking to the end of his career - there was no spectacular fall from grace we often see from aging fighters. Aldo simply decided he had had enough. There was no patronising ‘I think he should stop’ from Dana White as we saw with Junior Dos Santos, or calls from fans to call it a day – and why would there be? It was only at the back-end of last year that we saw Aldo beat a very highly-rated Rob Font. A genuine contender to the last, who faced adversity time and time again and soldiered on, with minimal complaints and maximum entertainment value.
Alas, all good things must come to an end. There is a worry amongst commentators and fans that Aldo will not receive a proper send-off; no chance to leave his gloves in the octagon and give Joe Rogan one final interview before exiting to rapturous applause in a packed-out stadium somewhere.
However, one can take comfort in the fact that he is almost certain to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, where he can take his rightful seat alongside greats such as Georges Saint-Pierre, Michael Bisping and Forrest Griffin.
