When Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes first stepped into the Octagon two years ago, the high-profile bout was over before it could begin. An Aldo knee to Mendes‘ skull knocked the challenger out and allowed the champion to retain his title, though the quick ending proved something of an anticlimactic finish to the anticipated fight.
When Aldo and Mendes agreed to get into the ring once more, again it seemed only disappointment would follow. An Aldo neck injury forced the promotion to wipe out UFC 176 altogether, as the promotion was unable to find a suitable opponent for Mendes in time to justify holding the event. Rescheduled for Saturday’s UFC 179, Aldo and Mendes knew they’d have to turn in the fight of their lives to justify the surrounding hype.
They did just that. And then some. Aldo managed to retain the featherweight championship with all three scorecards reading 49-46 in the champion’s favor. In a five-round fight, that might look like a blowout. But the scorecards in this case do not tell the whole story, as Aldo and Mendes turned in one of the best fights of 2014.
Both fighters had opportunities to seal the deal. Aldo and Mendes traded first-round knockdowns, Mendes dominated the fourth round and Aldo had his opponent on the proverbial ropes at numerous points. When it looked like one fighter was about to take over, though, the other would come battling back—as if each were writing the script to their own sports movie.
The only stoppages in the action came when Mendes twice poked Aldo in the eye, first in the opening round and then again in the third. No points were deducted from either fighter’s total, though the decision to not shave a point from Aldo following a late first-round punch was controversial. It’s impossible to tell how a points deduction would have altered the fight—the result here is immaterial because of how fights can ebb and flow—but UFC president Dana White and Aldo both claim there was no intent to injure.
“After that first round, a couple people came over and started saying, ‘He hit him with two punches after the bell. That was late,’” White told John Morgan of MMA Junkie. “I didn’t hear anything. It was so loud in that arena, I didn’t hear it. It didn’t look like the referee heard it.”
In the end, the judges got their cards right. Aldo, despite some of the best tactical fighting of Mendes‘ career, never lost control of the fight. The champion was an expert at halting the momentum of his challenger, only ceding during a fourth round that he seemingly punted away. Having secured the first three rounds by most objective observations, it’s possible that Aldo gave Mendes the fourth round to conserve energy.
“I think every fight is the toughest fight of my career,” Aldo said, per Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com. “I think I deserved to win. He hit me a few times but I him a lot more. But congratulations to Chad Mendes. I have respect for him, his whole team, his family. Inside [the cage] it is a rivalry, but outside we’re friends.”
The win was Aldo’s seventh title defense and his 18th straight victory overall. The 28-year-old Brazilian has become a master of doing exactly what’s needed to dominate a fight. Aggressive, TKO-heavy bouts of his early career have slowly ceded to more and more decision wins. Five of his seven title defenses have gone to the judges’ scorecards, with not a single one having him on the losing end.
In some ways, Aldo is emerging as a generational answer to Floyd Mayweather. Like Mayweather, Aldo thrives when he’s taking away what an opponent does best. Aldo, like Mayweather, is a very good offensive fighter but a great defensive tactician. Comparing anyone to Mayweather is unfair—especially given his single-handed propping up of his sport—but Aldo is well on his way to carving a sterling long-term legacy.
Saturday night, Aldo showed what he could do when challenged. It’s a side we’ve rarely seen since he moved up from the WEC in 2010. It’s also a side that seemed to bring out the best from one of the world’s mixed martial artists. It’s a side we expected in their first fight, waited for despite the postponement of their second and finally got in Rio de Janeiro.
It’s safe to say it was worth the wait.
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