Although he came out victorious, Jose Aldo has shown he’s very beatable after facing Frankie Edgar in UFC 156 Saturday.
Heading into Saturday night’s featherweight title showdown, Aldo was expected to retain his title and stave off the pesky Edgar. He did, but it wasn’t in the manner that was expected.
The champion dominated in the first two rounds, I’ll give him that. Early on, it looked like this one would be over before it truly got going, and he undoubtedly scored better on those two rounds in a handy fashion.
But when Round 3 came along, Aldo disappeared and looked to be too tired to hang with the electric Edgar.
Down the stretch, you’d be surprised to know that Aldo is in fact 26 years old and five years younger than the 31-year-old Edgar.
Although Aldo notched many more strikes in Rounds 1 and 2 than Edgar, the final three rounds were heavily in favor of the loser. Edgar struck Aldo 51 times in Rounds 3, 4 and 5 to Aldo’s 36.
In the future, Aldo will have a huge target on his back as his future competition will have the perfect blueprint on how to take him down.
If his future competitors can figure out how to make it through the first couple of rounds and save their best for last, knocking Aldo out in Round 4 or Round 5 would be much more possible.
The future certainly is bright for Aldo, but he cannot afford to continue earning the reputation of having bad stamina and an inability to fight well in late rounds.
You have to credit Edgar, who seems to always be in bouts with close calls that go down to the wire. But a champion should be able to rise above that sort of hype and make it his own fight.
Aldo didn’t do that, and he comes out of this bout a weaker fighter despite the victory.
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