UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo is patiently awaiting the UFC’s next assignment after a convincing decision win over Ricardo Lamas at UFC 169 earlier this month, but has taken umbrage with some of his bosses’ recent comments.
In an interview with MMA Fighting, “Scarface” expressed some displeasure about UFC President Dana White putting an emphasis on finishes equating to a higher ranking in the pound-for-pound rankings.
“The ranking is f—-g useless, and I don’t care about it or anything people put on (about it),” Aldo said. “The best pound-for-pound fighter is (Cain) Velasquez because he beats all of them. If they put him against me, he’d beat me. That’s how it works for me. The best is that one that beats everybody. I don’t care about the rankings.”
Aldo, currently the no. 2 fighter in the UFC’s official pound-for-pound rankings, is currently in the midst of a convincing 17-fight win streak, but has drawn a bit of criticism for only stopping two of his opponents in six UFC appearances.
For the sake of comparison, the Brazilian striking specialist—with a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu to boot—finished seven of his eight bouts inside the WEC cage.
Also, bear in mind that in Aldo’s past four fights he has scored two knockouts against Chad Mendes and Chan Sung Jung, while going the distance with Lamas and the very durable Frankie Edgar.
Aldo was tentatively linked to a summer showdown with UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, but that bout has once again been put on hold since “Showtime” will now coach season 20 of The Ultimate Fighter opposite Gilbert Melendez instead, per MMA Junkie.
The 27-year-old noted that a rematch with Mendes may be on the horizon, but expressed little enthusiasm for a rematch with his American counterpart.
“I respect (Mendes) a lot, he’s tough, but it doesn’t matter if he’s coming off knockouts or not. I don’t think he changed the way he fights, and he didn’t fight top 10 opponents,” Aldo said.
Mendes has won five straight bouts since his loss to Aldo, the only defeat of his professional mixed martial arts career, with four of those wins coming via KO.
Are Aldo’s comments regarding pound-for-pound rankings right on the money or completely unjustified?
John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.
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