Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Fighters of the 2010s

6. Jose Aldo

Sherdog's greatest featherweight and second greatest Brazilian fighter, in addition to being fourth on the list of greatest fighters ever pound-for-pound, finishes a mere sixth here. I've noted many times on these lists, including the last entry, that I consider Aldo the greatest fighter of all time, and yet, I had him fifth on this list. Why is that? It's not due to any failing on Aldo's part, but rather that his superlative career doesn't neatly fit into a single decade. Aldo was an incredible 18-0 from 2006 until December 2015, an unparalleled stretch of dominance for a fighter in a lighter weight class, which are much higher in skill and evolve far more quickly. Legendary champions like B.J. Penn, Renan Barao and Takanori Gomi went from unbeatable to washed up and on long losing streaks by their early 30s.

There was nothing so ignominious for Aldo, but his early greatness in the late 2000s was cut off by this list, and he was only at his peak for the first half of the 2010s. Still, that was still good enough to eclipse all but a few names ahead of him. In terms of ability, Aldo was an all-time great striker who could completely nullify even the best grapplers, while also being a very good wrestler with fantastic BJJ himself. He was ahead of his time with his striking style and how well he blended his legendary leg and body kicks with outstanding boxing. His legendary wins in the 2010s include a five-round beating of fellow legend Urijah Faber, a knockout of Manny Gamburyan, dominant decisions over Mark Hominick and Kenny Florian, badly beating recent lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, who had been robbed of the 155-pound belt in his previous fight, a five-round beating of Ricardo Lamas, a late knockout of Chan Sung Jung and two wins over the ultra-talented Chad Mendes: one by a famous first-round knockout, and the second by decision in one of the greatest fights ever. None of these fights were very close, so far ahead of his competition was Aldo.

Eventually, fighting fellow legends yielded losses. Aldo was caught early by Conor McGregor and, after beating Edgar again, was knocked out twice by Max Holloway. However, Aldo showed he was far from done, recording knockouts of Jeremy Stephens and Renato Carneiro before dropping another decision to an all-time legend in Alexander Volkanovski. Aldo ended the decade making an incredible drop down to bantamweight, though his first foray didn't end in success, dropping a controversial split decision to then-recent title challenger and Top 5 bantamweight Marlon Moraes. Even being in his prime for only the first half of the decade, Aldo is a no-brainer inclusion on this list.

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