Following every major fight, the MMA world instantly starts to edit the all-time ranks, trying to figure out where the latest standout to secure an impressive or important victory fits in the pantheon of all-time greats.
It’s an understandable venture, especially with sports talk shows long ago committing to the “embrace debate” culture that results in anywhere from two to four intelligent professionals yelling over each other for 30-90 minutes at various times throughout the day.
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Social media has become a technological coliseum of sorts, with opinions replacing gladiators and ratios serving as the emperor’s thumb that signaled whether you lived or died. And with each crucial conflict, another fighter steps forward to have their legacy picked apart in these digital battlegrounds by experts, idiots and everyone in between.
The same exercise happens when a great fighter in the presumed latter stages of their career readies to compete again. We scan their resumes, looking for transformative triumphs and devastating defeats — the markers that signal their ascent, apex and ultimate decline.
This week’s subject is Jose Aldo.
Once universally regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters on the planet and arguably the greatest featherweight of all-time, opinions on the now 32-year-old Brazilian have shifted since he was forced to abdicate his throne on two different occasions — first by Conor McGregor and then again by Max Holloway.
The rise of those champions, both in terms of popularity and performance, has prompted many people to question Aldo’s place in the assemblage of all-time great fighters, as if the entirety of his career is now to be judged largely on his results against those two men.
It’s a problem that arises in every sport as these debates rage on and perceptions of older athletes focus too much on the here and now to an almost negligent degree.
Earlier this week, Bill Simmons and Chuck Klosterman tackled the issue when discussing the current perception of Carmelo Anthony, the forward whose overall achievements are now being filtered through the prism of his last couple years.
“The last few years of somebody’s career ends up over-effecting how people talk about that person as they’re heading towards the tail end,” Simmons said, reflecting on the general trend before acknowledging it is definitely happening with the 34-year-old 10-time All-Star. “If you read anything now, it’s like the guy was a disaster and it’s like, ‘That guy was a great basketball player.’”
Simmons quickly ran through Anthony's resume, detailing how far he carried solid, but not spectacular Denver teams, that his best teammate was a late-career Chauncey Billups and that he finished in the Top 3 in MVP voting in 2013, while leading the league in scoring and carrying the New York Knicks to their best season in recent memory.
As Simmons put it, “It’s like if the ending is bad, it taints the whole thing,” which is precisely the case with Anthony.
His game never evolved during his final few years in New York and his effectiveness has continued to wane during stops in Oklahoma City and Houston, where he spent 10 games at the start of the year before being released. Currently, Anthony is officially a member of the Chicago Bulls, but he’s never suited up for the squad, likely never will and could very well have already played his last NBA game.
As a result, the current mass perception of Anthony is that he’s an ineffective player with an antiquated game that maybe wasn’t all that good to begin with, which is preposterous. Yes, he’s older and his style of play and overall abilities are not suited to today’s game, but Melo was a Top 20 player for the vast majority of his career and his struggles in Oklahoma City and Houston should not make you think otherwise.
That appears to be what is happening with Aldo right now, except the Brazilian legend hasn’t really even reached his Oklahoma City phase.
Losing to McGregor the way he did permanently altered the way some people perceive Aldo.
Had the two gone to war for 25 minutes with the Irish superstar earning a hard-fought decision, it would have been much harder to summarily dismiss Aldo’s myriad of accomplishments prior to their clash at UFC 194. But because McGregor put a left hand on his chin 13 seconds into the contest, lots of otherwise smart, thoughtful people have turned into McGregor stans who will argue with you to the point of exhaustion that the Nova Uniao product was never great.
Those who are ready to document Aldo’s decline point to his consecutive stoppage losses to Holloway as further evidence that he’s washed up, as if losing to someone five years your junior who has won 13 straight and counting is somehow proof that you’re no longer a great fighter.
What gets discarded in those arguments (for obvious reasons) is that between his loss to McGregor and twin setbacks against Holloway, Aldo went out and put it on Frankie Edgar at UFC 200 and has subsequently earned a first-round stoppage win over durable veteran Jeremy Stephens.
Just as you don’t finish third in MVP voting if you’re not a great player, you don’t beat a perennial contender like Edgar and stop a tough out like Stephens if you’re washed.
This weekend in Fortaleza, Aldo takes on fellow Brazilian Renato Moicano in a bout that could carry championship implications and will definitely clarify whether Aldo is moving towards his “Carmelo in OKC” years or is still in the midst of his final few quality seasons in The Big Apple.
Moicano sports a 4-1 record in the UFC and is 13-1-1 overall, with his lone loss coming in the third round of a fight he was winning against recent title challenger Brian Ortega. As much as that sounds like a “he was winning right up until he lost” argument, the fact that he went shot-for-shot with Ortega, who was favored to dethrone Holloway heading into their clash at UFC 231, illustrates the talent and toughness the 29-year-old possesses.
And if Aldo beats him, everyone who has been writing his obituary will have to file that document away for a later date and those that have suggested he’s done being a contender will need to offer a retraction, though few will.
As for where he fits amongst the best of all-time, it’s impossible to let those three setbacks to two outstanding fighters diminish what Aldo accomplished from the beginning of 2006 to the close of 2015.
Over that nine-year period, the quiet, humble talent from Manaus won 18 consecutive contests, capturing the WEC featherweight title and being grandfathered in as the first champion in the 145-pound weight class when it was introduced in the UFC at the close of 2010.
During that stretch, Aldo stopped “Pequeno” Nogueira, knocked out Cub Swanson in eight seconds, stopped Mike Brown in the second round to claim the WEC belt and dominated Urijah Faber in his first title defense, which also served as the main event for the first and only pay-per-view in WEC history.
Once he matriculated to the Octagon, Aldo maintained his winning ways by soundly defeating Mark Hominick in a fight many recall as closer than it actually was, handed Kenny Florian another championship loss, knocked out Chad Mendes before celebrating in the crowd in Rio, outworked Edgar, stopped “The Korean Zombie,” dominated Ricardo Lamas and beat Mendes a second time for good measure.
Very few fighters have ever embarked on a run like that, extending their winning streak into the high double digits while turning back tough outs and top contenders at every turn.
Fedor Emelianenko’s incredible string of victories was flecked with wins over light heavyweights, professional wrestlers, sumo wrestlers and Hong Man Choi. Anderson Silva and Demetrious Johnson both put together lengthy runs of success in the Octagon, but each faced two or three “less than elite” opponents along the way.
Georges St-Pierre has one of the greatest resumes in MMA history, but even his string of 13 consecutive UFC wins (and counting, technically) includes bouts against Matt Serra and Dan Hardy, plus a second bout with Josh Koscheck three years after St-Pierre whooped him the first time.
The same goes for Jon Jones, who is ostensibly undefeated, but has wins over Vitor Belfort, Chael Sonnen and Ovince Saint Preux scattered amongst his truly impressive collection of triumphs.
But the fact that the greatest stretch of Aldo’s career compares favorably to the prime years of a group of fighters universally regarded as the best to ever do it tells you all you need to know about where the Brazilian fits in the pantheon.
You can’t revise history and the reports of his decline are greatly exaggerated.
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Jose Aldo is the greatest featherweight in MMA history and one of the best fighters to ever compete in the sport.
A couple losses to outstanding fighters doesn’t change that, though if Holloway continues his winning ways, “Blessed” just might end up knocking Aldo down one more time.