Fight Archives: Aldo wipes the smile off Swanson’s face with flying knee

It’s also the fight that birthed the now-viral Jose Aldo dancing gif.

I’ve been seeing a lot of Jose Aldo throwback posts on Twitter this week, and perhaps, for good reason. The former longtime featherweight king will step back inside the UFC cage on Saturday, this time against the always dangerous Rob Font.

I already wrote an Aldo tribute for this series a year and a half ago. But the man just has too many highlight-worthy performances to look back on, that it would be a sin not to do another one.

This time, I chose to put the spotlight on Aldo’s knee striking game, something we’ve all seen and been in awe of multiple times over. And if we’re focusing on this particular weapon of his, there’s no better way to do so than to rewatch his WEC 41 title eliminator fight with Cub Swanson in 2009.

Swanson, at the time, was on a 13-2 run and was coming off a Fight of the Night performance against former DREAM featherweight champion Hiroyuki Takaya. He was all smiles at the touch of the gloves, which the King of Rio wiped off clean in seconds with a flying knee.

And from that glorious moment sprouted this now-famous image.

All it took was eight seconds for Jose Aldo to get the job done. And here it is for all of you to relive.