2. Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes 2
UFC 179
Oct. 25 | Rio de Janeiro
Aldo in February did the perfunctory work necessary to win a unanimous decision and retain his featherweight championship against deserving challenger Ricardo Lamas at UFC 169. It was another dragging title defense in which the Brazilian petered out late and, despite technically dominating most of the bout, showed none of the dynamism that made the sport fall in love with him six years ago. With the UFC’s featherweight class stuck in a holding pattern, it seemed hard to believe an Aldo rematch with Mendes would be a keystone moment in reinvigorating the division, but great fighters and great rivals can elevate one another in profound ways.
Back in January 2012, an 11-0 Mendes was crushed by a step-in knee from Aldo with one second left in the first round of their UFC 142 main event, sending the champion vaulting out of the cage to celebrate in the stands of the HSBC Arena with his Rio de Janeiro faithful. “Money” earned his second title shot the old-fashioned way, dominating his next five foes over the next two years with suddenly potent standup and a more complete MMA game. Their rematch was expected to be more competitive, but it was not so much Mendes’ improvements that had people stirring. Instead, fans and media seemed to question whether or not Aldo was simply deteriorating.
After all, this fight was originally scheduled for UFC 176 on Aug. 2 in Los Angeles, but after several years of back and neck injuries, plus weight-cutting difficulties, Aldo suffered a back and shoulder injury in training and pulled out of the bout on July 2. Aldo’s withdrawal led to the event’s complete cancelation; it was just the second time -- UFC 151 in August 2012 was the first -- that Zuffa was forced to take that measure over lacking a main event. In addition, its rescheduling for UFC 179 on Oct. 25 in Rio de Janeiro was a brutal switch for Mendes, who would have to give up the advantage of fighting in his home state to challenge Aldo in front of his partisan Brazilian crowd.
From the opening seconds, Mendes showed off the retooled striking he developed under Duane Ludwig, jabbing and pressuring Aldo constantly, checking his kicks and commanding the striking action for several minutes until he accidentally poked Aldo in the eye during a punching combination. After the restart, Aldo roared to life, hurting Mendes with a knee to the body and then dropping him with a left hook to the temple. Mendes recovered, but Aldo mounted him and kept on the pressure until the horn ended the round -- and even beyond: As the round expired, Aldo clocked Mendes with a left and then completely dropped him again with a controversial right hand which clearly came after the bell.
Would another miscue around the five-minute mark completely sink Mendes? Not this time. The Team Alpha Male product never stopped pressuring Aldo, checking kicks and throwing his punches. Aldo controlled the second frame, but Mendes reignited in the third, doing more damage to Aldo with a right uppercut-left hook combo than any other strikes the Nova Uniao fighter had absorbed in his career. Mendes kept his foot on the gas in the fourth round, but the champion -- his left eye busted and bloodied, exacerbated by several inadvertent head butts and eye pokes -- kept answering with hard counter punches, curbing his kicking habits to avoid Mendes’ takedown attempts.
All three judges -- Richard Bertrand, Marco Aurelio Borges and Guilherme Bravo -- had the bout 39-36 for Aldo after four rounds, giving Mendes only the fourth. However, there was no open scoring here and Aldo needed to dig deep and show the kind of championship quality he had so seldom needed to show over his lopsided reign atop the division. He countered Mendes when he had the chance but also chased him when he needed to. When time ticked down, he did not circle away and celebrate but opted to wing punches and a flying kick at Mendes to seal the unanimous decision.
Even though he did not record a flying knee knockout, it seemed like the 2009 “Fighter of the Year” was alive again. More importantly, it showed us that when the chips are down, Aldo can endure, battle and overcome. The judges officially gave Mendes just the one round, yet no fighter during Aldo’s World Extreme Cagefighting or UFC tenure offered the real threat and competition Mendes had, making it clear what a high-caliber athlete into which Mendes had morphed. Somehow, two fighters who displayed outright contempt for one another in the run up to the fight -- they accused one another of being on steroids -- wound up making one another look better than they ever had before.
It was a fantastic year for the featherweight division on the whole, but even with the Conor McGregor phenomenon in full swing, a new-and-improved Frankie Edgar and a slate of talented, emerging prospects, the 145-pound court could not have galvanized us without the help of its king. Aldo gave us a long overdue decree regarding the speed of his sword, the power of his throne and why he wears the crown.
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