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Fellow top featherweight Jose Aldo discusses the Edgar vs. Ortega fight, how he thinks Ortega stacks up against Max Holloway, and more.

One man reigned on top of the featherweight division for a long time, and he obviously still has a keen intrrest in the evolution of his division. One major change came at UFC 222, when perennial contender Frankie Edgar took a short-notice fight with the dangerous Brian Ortega – and lost. From Jose Aldo’s side of things, he believes Edgar shouldn’t have taken the fight. But in an interview on the Giro Combate show in Brazil (transcribed by MMA Junkie), he said he wasn’t surprised by the outcome:

“It’s a new generation that’s coming in Age comes for everyone, and it’s normal to have this sort of rotation. To me, it wasn’t (surprising). I just thought it was a mistake on Edgar’s end to fight (Ortega), who’s a very tough guy. He would have fought for the title, risked that and lost. Now he’s all the way back there again.

“I think that was his biggest mistake. But I wasn’t surprised with the loss. That’s part of it. When you go in there, anyone can come out victorious, whether it’s via knockout or points, and that’s part of fighting.”

He was also asked to share his thoughts on the next title bout between Ortega and champion Max Holloway:

“It’s a very even fight, I think” Aldo said. “Both have very similar reaches. In the striking department, too, I don’t see any of them as a specialist. The one specialty I see is Ortega’s guillotine, which is very strong.

“But Max won’t take him down. He’ll stand. So the fight will be decided on the feet.”

Aldo is currently looking for a fight with Jeremy Stephens at UFC 224 to bounce back from consecutive losses to Holloway. Ortega and Holloway are expected to fight not long after Holloway heals from the injury that forced him out of UFC 222 in the first place.

Check out the full fight card and bout order for UFC Fight Night: Werdum vs. Volkov in London, England.

The UFC’s final March offering is on the 17th, at The O2 Arena in London, England. Headlining this event is a heavyweight bout between former UFC champion Fabricio Werdum and ex-Bellator titleholder Alexander Volkov. The co-main event is a light heavyweight rematch between Jimi Manuwa and Jan Blachowicz.

Rounding out the main card are bantamweights Tom Duquesnoy and Terrion Ware, as well as rising English welterweight Leon Edwards and Peter Sobotta.

UFC Fight Pass will live stream the entire card in most regions (the United Kingdom is not one of them on this occasion). Here’s the full fight card and bout order for next Saturday:

Main Card (5 PM ET/2 PM PT)

Fabricio Werdum vs. Alexander Volkov
Jan Blachowicz vs. Jimi Manuwa
Tom Duquesnoy vs. Terrion Ware
Leon Edwards vs. Peter Sobotta

Preliminary Card (1:45 PM ET/10:45 AM PT)

John Phillips vs. Charles Byrd
Danny Roberts vs. Oliver Enkamp
Jack Marshman vs. Brad Scott
Danny Henry vs. Hakeem Dawodu
Paul Craig vs. Magomed Ankalaev
Mark Godbeer vs. Dmitriy Sosnovskiy
TBA vs. Nasrat Haqparast
Kajan Johnson vs. Steven Ray

Now that he’s settled into Bellator, Gegard Mousasi is looking to take out all their champions.

If Gegard Mousasi thought life was going to be easier in Bellator than in the UFC, he got a rude awakening in his debut fight against Alexander Shlemenko. While he managed to beat Shlemenko by decision, Shlemenko wailed on Mousasi’s face so hard it’s left one eye looking a bit disfigured.

”Thank God, I can see clearly,” Mousasi told MMA Junkie. “That’s the most important thing. The pupil is a little bit bigger than the other one. But that’s only in the sunshine. I don’t know. It’s not the same anymore. After my career, I can get it fixed. This sport doesn’t make me any prettier. Not that I was pretty (before), but it’s not a good thing.”

That reminder of the very high stakes involved in MMA hasn’t stopped Mousasi from chasing the hardest fights across numerous Bellator divisions. He’ll face middleweight champ Rafael Carvalho at Bellator 200 on May 25th, and if all goes well he’ll follow that up with a fight against welterweight champ Rory MacDonald.

“After this fight, hopefully we can get it done and he can come and show his skills,” Mousasi said on the latest edition of The MMA Hour. “But he will come up short. His style is perfect for me, he moves forward — he’ll get his ass kicked, probably.”

Mousasi is 8-1 since 2015 and left the UFC on a four fight knockout finishing streak. MacDonald has bounced back from a two fight skid in the UFC with two wins in Bellator, but he struggled en route to his first major title win over Douglas Lima in January. First Mousasi will have to beat the 15-1 Carvalho, who may not have the name recognition of MacDonald but definitely has the skills to throw a wrench in these UFC vs. UFC plans.

An MMA weekend lacking in big fights still had a lot of stunning KOs on offer.

The UFC and Bellator may have been on break, but there was still a lot of action going on in the MMA world this last week. Absolute Championship Berkut, M-1 Global, Pancrase, Legacy Fighting Alliance, and many more put on events that lead to some stunning results. Not to mention action from boxing, kickboxing, and Muay Thai. So, we’ve collected the greatest ‘hits,’ so to speak, all in one place for maximum concentrated entertainment.

And of course, all this wouldn’t be possible without the stars of MMA highlight twitter. This week featuring Jolassanda, Caposa, and John Hyon Ko. So, give them a follow if you’re looking for more regular week-to-week MMA action.

M-1 Challenge 89: Buchinger vs. Krasnikov

Longtime veteran and former Cage Warriors champion Ivan Buchinger headlined last week’s M-1 card, defeating Andrey Krasnikov via Anaconda in Round 2. The 12 fight card featured eleven stoppages, seven coming by KO/TKO.

Heavyweight Anton Vyazigin moved to 9-2 behind a charging left hand and a series of followup strikes, just 16 seconds into round 1, as Zaur Gadzhibabayev dropped to 6-2.

Lightweight Mickael Lebout moved to 17-8-3, continuing his post-UFC career with a wild right hook KO over Sergey Faley, who drops to 20-11.

Lightweight Alik Albogachiev moves to 5-0 in his career with a slick right hand to leaping left hook finish over now 3-2 Rasul Magomedov.

Middleweight Boris Medvedev makes a fantastic pro debut dropping Kirill Mazhara to 2-1 with a headkick and punches.

ROAD FC 46

The South Korean MMA promotion was back in form with the next leg of their $1 Million lightweight tournament. Mansour Barnaoui and Shamil Zavurov both moved on with wins over Kota Shimoishi and Ronys Torres respectively. The 12 fight card featured six stoppages, four by KO/TKO.

Bantamweight Heili Alateng moved to 12-6-1 with a hard right hand and followup GnP on Ik Hwan Jang, dropping him to 6-2.

Middleweight In Soo Hwang (4-0) battered Nae Chul Kim (6-5) for a first round KO.

Super Fight League

With a long running standard of low-technique wild violence, SFL has been in strong form running three events in the last week.

Featherweight Sumeet Khade moved to 8-2 with a ridiculous headkick KO over now 5-5 Pawan Goyat. Just last Sunday, he put the stamp on Krishan Rawat (4-3) with a brutal series of right hands.

Lightweight Abdul Azim Badakhshi is now 8-1 following a picture perfect counter knee on Sascha Sharma, who drops to 14-5.

Light Heavyweight Javed Mulla (6-2) with a straight left hand to put away Amit Sawant (0-3).

Absolute Championship Berkut 82: Silva vs. Kolobegov

The Russian-based MMA promotion put on a show in Brazil this week, and it was dotted with familiar names. UFC vet Thiago Silva lost in the main event, while Daniel Sarafian picked up a win in the co-main.

Welterweight Brett Cooper (25-13) put the stamp on fellow Bellator veteran Andre Santos (38-11) with a tight right hook early in round 1.

Middleweight Gregory Milliard moved to 10-5 with a right hand behind the ear on Alexandre Hoffman, who dropped to 10-3.

Legacy Fighting Alliance 35: Newell vs. Luque

Notable World Series of Fighting veteran Nick Newell returned to competition for the first time in two-and-a-half years, with a first round submission win over Sonny Luque in the LFA main event.

Bantamweight Adrian Yanez (7-2) got one heck of a highlight, finishing Nathan Trepagnier (4-4) with just four seconds left in round 1.

Bantamweight Leomana Martinez moved to 3-1 with a left uppercut on the jaw of a scrambling Casey Jones, who fell to 3-2.

OTHER MMA

Flyweight Yuki Ito moved to 2-0 over the debuting Yusuke Arai with a quick flurry of strikes in round 1 at Fighting Network RINGS: The Outsider 50.

Flyweight Taiki Akiba (8-6) with a crushing knee KO over Yuki Yasunaga (14-13) at Pancrase 294.

Welterweight Rudy Gunawan moved to 7-0 with a spinning backfist KO over Christian Kasino, who dropped to 4-1, at One Pride Pro: Never Quit 17.

Featherweight Mark Volkov (2-0), rushed Akmaldzhon Mamurov (3-1) for a seven second KO at Fight Club Akhmat’s Battle on Volga 3.

Welterweight Bagautdin Abasov (13-5 ???) crushed an opponent known only as Hasiter in the first round on their bout at Kunlun Fight 70.

Kickboxing and Muay Thai

Victor Nagbe with the leg kick TKO stoppage of Elam Chavez at Kunlun Fight 70.

Law Chosing overwhelmed Sammy Banchamek with right hands, finishing him off with an uppercut (and a late shot) at Kunlun Fight 70.

Fumiya hit the spinning backfist to finally KO Hiroki Nakamura in their all-out war at Krush 86.

Shimano Kotaro picked up a left hook KO at Krush 86.

Takuma Kawaguchi TKOed Kyohei Hayashi with a straight right hand at Krush 86.

Pakron worked the head, body, and legs to get the stoppage on Jiao Zhou at Real Hero Muay Thai.

Petchubol with the flying knee KO over Btjagal also at Real Hero Muay Thai.

Yohan Lidon-Perez with the body kick KO on Sergej Braun at DSF Kickboxing.

Dawid Mirkowski hit a slapping high kick for the KO at DSF Kickboxing.

Kongjak Por Pad In with a series of crushing knees to the face to KO Mansurbek Tolipov at MX Muay Xtreme.

Kim Dong Hwan with the body shot KO on Mum Eagle Muay Thai R at MX Muay Xtreme

Walter Goncalves with his own body kick KO over Manchai M.U. Den at MX Muay Xtreme.

BOXING

Alex Saucedo (27-0) set up a picture perfect left hook to the liver on Abner Lopez.

Mario Barrios (22-0) with the straight right hand to finish Eudy Bernardo.

Regis Prograis (22-0) clubbed Julius Indongo with three huge left hands to finish their fight in the second round.

That’s all this time, but This Week in KOs will return in just two week’s time with more action from around the globe, as the UFC has another break in their calendar.