For the first time in what feels like an eternity, UFC 179 brought fight fans an interesting title fight as Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes faced off in a long-awaited rematch.
The do-over has been years in the making. While Aldo won the original fight by knockout with a devastating knee in the first round, Mendes has been making fighter after fighter look completely overmatched.
Entering the fight, the question was how much had Mendes improved relative to the champ? He certainly demonstrated a better-polished game. While Mendes had little to offer other than a big right hand and a strong double-leg takedown back in 2012, he showed a more diverse striking attack, complemented by his strong wrestling.
Ultimately, though, Aldo was still too much for the other guy named “Money.” With his signature jab and impregnable takedown defense, he got the better of the majority of exchanges and racked up points en route to a unanimous 49-46 decision win.
The question of “what did we learn from this fight?” can be answered in many ways.
First, the impact a strong main event has on a card cannot be understated. UFC 179 featured a profoundly weak crew of fighters who performed accordingly. Still, it’s hard to believe anybody will remember anything but the strong main event when the sun rises on Sunday.
Second, the overall classlessness of the Brazilian crowd is getting out of hand. The Portuguese “you’re going to die” chants have become grossly common at UFC events over the last two years, but the Rio fans found new ways to make reasonable people roll their eyes as they jeered Chad Mendes during his post-fight speech and ripped on their president:
Presidential elections tomorrow, so UFC fans chanting about politics now. Current president Dilma? “Go f… yourself,” they chant. Classy.
— Guilherme Cruz (@guicruzzz) October 26, 2014
Crowd chants “second place again” to Mendes.
— Guilherme Cruz (@guicruzzz) October 26, 2014
Third, Jose Aldo showed he is still capable of rising above a game challenger, something we haven’t seen him do (or have to do) in years. The champ cruised to unimpressive wins over Chan-Sung Jung and Ricardo Lamas with little effort. Some, most notably mouthy contender Conor McGregor, speculated that this was a sign that he had reached a technical plateau. Not so, in this writer’s opinion.
The biggest lesson of all, however, centers around Chad Mendes.
Team Alpha Male’s roller-coaster title contention has been a running story for a few years now. TJ Dillashaw, obviously, blessed Sacramento with its first UFC belt. Joseph Benavidez and Urijah Faber, meanwhile, find themselves on the outside of the title picture looking in.
Mendes’ status as a top fighter in the 145-pound division has never been in question. As Johny Hendricks can tell you, strong wrestling and a big right hand are good enough to beat almost anybody (the key word, of course, being almost). However, iron sharpens iron, and while Mendes’ iron was already found wanting in relation to Aldo’s, he never really had the opportunity to get sharper.
Fights with the likes of Frankie Edgar, Jeremy Stephens and Dennis Siver would have sharpened Mendes. Instead, he merely polished his visibly seemed game, beating the likes of Yaotzin Meza and Darren Elkins without ever having to really improve and, as was exposed tonight, never quite figuring out how to combine his wrestling and striking games. Mendes, in spite of being one of the most dangerous men at 145 pounds, was set by the UFC on the easiest path possible, which cost him on Saturday.
That is where tonight’s greatest lesson lies. While lining up squash matches may be the best way to ensure a specific fight happens, coddling a fighter en route to a championship loss isn’t necessarily doing them a real favor.
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