Jose Aldo is currently on a tirade to retire because he was left out of the mega event in New York City at UFC 205. It was said that Dana White promised the former champion a rematch with Conor McGregor for the feather weight title. Aldo announced yesterday he wanted his release from the UFC. Many mixed reactions went thru my mind when it was reported and it will interesting how it plays out.
It is my opinion that Jose Aldo is one of the top three MMA fighters of all time. The other two are Anderson Silva and Jon Jones. What Aldo has accomplished during his ten year run was simply amazing. He was the last WEC feather weight champion and the first UFC feather weight champion. He won 18 straight fights and was named Sherdog’s Fighter of the year in 2009. He was ranked as the number 1 P4P fighter in 2015 and is currently #5 on that list. He is currently the UFC interim champion. Its simply mind boggling actually.
He made great fighters look mediocre such as Frankie Edgar and Ricardo Lamas completely dominating the fights he had with each one. His 1st round knee KO of Chad Mendes was UFC highlight reel worthy. His takedown defense and low kicks were special to witness. Rarely did an opponent leave the cage without huge marks on their legs and a limp the next day.
All of the above mentioned is great but there were a few things that tarnished those accolades. Lets start with the 5 championship fights he dropped off the card because of various injuries. Those are UFC 125,149,153,176 and 189 to be exact. The UFC is big business and losing title fights on scheduled cards is a major problem. It is an inconvenience to everyone involved including the fans, the opponent, and the UFC. The feather weight King pin was notorious for rescheduling fights but with his notable skills and worldwide clout, the UFC did not have much leverage.
During his time as champion, he never ventured outside his own weight class. Aldo had all the opportunities that Conor McGregor has now but never seized the opportunity to take those leaps. To be fair to Aldo, no other fighter has either. This is where I believe his ego has held him back. I think Aldo was more concerned with his title and comfort zone of the already dominated division than he was building a legacy but I forgive him for that. Let’s fast forward to the last year starting at UFC 189 that he dropped out of due to an injured rib after a huge world tour promoting the fight. Lets also add that it was McGregor that actually promoted the fight as Aldo was his same laid back self basically discounting the Irishman’s skills as if they were not worthy enough of his time. Not to mention his lack of knowledge of any english at all. I mean zero.
After McGregor defeated Mendes for the interim title, the circus started again and more promoting was done basically ending with Aldo getting KOed in 13 seconds. I don’t fault Aldo or did it change my opinion as a fighter of after the loss, it’s his actions since that make me scratch my head.
Aldo has already been champion for a long time so why doesn’t he seek out some interesting fights until Conor is done seizing his moment. It seems to me Aldo’s ego is larger than his desire to make money. A pro fighters career is short and he should be using his name power to get those big money fights. The McGregor fight will finally circle back around but in the meantime he could be building his legacy. He was a bit of a MMA snob during the whole Conor McGregor saga never giving him his due. He constantly pushed him off as a pretender or a joker never respecting McGregor until he was laid out quickly. He could have laughed and brushed the loss off as a learning tool but instead whines and cries on twitter. All of a sudden he has something to say. But now he lost that leverage I mentioned above and the UFC is not really listening. The UFC machine moves on and Aldo is trying to catch up while ironically the man that defeated him is leading the charge.
Even defeating Frankie Edgar was old hat as he has done that previously. Max Holloway would have been an incredible fight to watch but once again Aldo does not want to be bothered. What has Aldo done differently ? The answer is nothing. He continues to stay at 145lbs and wait. The championship belt is his existence and he was paralyzed with it and has proven to be even more so without. There is a lot of money to be made in the sport currently and he continues to wait around. Aldo should have and could have gotten on that 205 card and got paid or 206 or somewhere other than ask for releases and talk about retirement. Once again its his ego thinking the MMA world will fall flat because he wants to leave the UFC.
The fact is that Jose Aldo needs the UFC a lot more than they need him. The Game has changed and its time he takes some big fights in the cage. He will always be a champion and one of the greatest of all time but he will be shown the door and fizzle in some far off organization if let go. Meanwhile Conor McGregor is busy chasing the money and huge paydays which Aldo is no where near or in sight of. Beat someone Aldo and make yourself valuable again because we all know you aren’t gonna talk your way into anything. Get out of your own way and become even greater. The moment is still there for you so seize it!