Max Holloway is the undisputed featherweight champion of the world. “Blessed” shocked a lot of people with his third round knockout win over Jose Aldo last night (Sat. June 3, 2017) in Brazil, but he’s ready to take on all comers after solidifying himself as the baddest 145-pound man on the planet. One man who […]
Max Holloway is the undisputed featherweight champion of the world.
“Blessed” shocked a lot of people with his third round knockout win over Jose Aldo last night (Sat. June 3, 2017) in Brazil, but he’s ready to take on all comers after solidifying himself as the baddest 145-pound man on the planet. One man who may be next in line for Holloway’s throne is former lightweight champ Frankie Edgar.
Edgar comes off of a great TKO win over Yair Rodriguez at UFC 211 last month and is looking for his third shot at featherweight gold. The match-up would be an interesting one for both men, given that Holloway is a phenomenal striker with proven submission ability, and Edgar is a gritty wrestler who will punish any man laying underneath him.
If Edgar is in fact the man next up to challenge for his title, the 25-year-old Hawaiian gladly welcomes the challenge (quotes via FOX Sports):
“Me and Frankie [Edgar], that sounds awesome,” Holloway said at the UFC 212 post-fight press conference. “Everybody keeps saying I didn’t fight people. Aldo was saying I didn’t fight people and Frankie is a former champ.
“I’ve got two former champs under my belt. It’d be nice adding another one under my belt. We’ll see what happens.”
A match-up between Edgar and Holloway would certainly be a big affair for mixed martial arts (MMA) fans, but Holloway has a way to make it even bigger – defending his title against “The Answer” in his hometown of Hawaii:
“If they want to do it, let’s do it in Hawaii,” Holloway said. “I know a place, a stadium, it’s very nice.”
After a fun night of fights at UFC 212 in Brazil on Saturday, UFC fans are left with much to ponder following a card full of finishes and upsets. With a massive first-round finish in the co-main event, and a thrilling back-and-forth featherweight title fight that ended in a shocking finish, UFC 212 provided MMA […]
After a fun night of fights at UFC 212 in Brazil on Saturday, UFC fans are left with much to ponder following a card full of finishes and upsets.
With a massive first-round finish in the co-main event, and a thrilling back-and-forth featherweight title fight that ended in a shocking finish, UFC 212 provided MMA fans with plenty of Monday morning water cooler fodder to discuss, and exciting new landscapes at several marquis weight divisions.
Let’s take a look back at the five biggest takeaways from UFC 212.
Jason Silva for USA TODAY Sports
5. Marlon Moraes UFC Debut Disappointment
Marlon Moraes entered his UFC debut riding the crest of a 13-fight win streak, having recently vacated the WSOF bantamweight belt.
Moraes had looked like a killer outside of the octagon, finishing eight of those 13 wins. But the Brazilian came up short on Saturday, dropping a decision loss to Raphael Assuncao and never really appearing able to get into the fight.
While Moraes is still relativity young and has time to make a run in the UFC, his octagon debut left much to be desired.
Moraes was recently signed to the UFC with fellow WSOF champion Justin Gaethje. Gaethje takes on Michael “The Menace” Johnson on July 7 at the Ultimate Fighter Redemption Finale.
The mixed martial arts are constantly evolving, techniques coming in and out of favor as fighters discover what works and what doesn’t in the world’s most demented scientific laboratory—the UFC’s Octagon. But sometimes it’s the old standbys that …
The mixed martial arts are constantly evolving, techniques coming in and out of favor as fighters discover what works and what doesn’t in the world’s most demented scientific laboratory—the UFC’s Octagon. But sometimes it’s the old standbys that work best, as Max “Blessed” Holloway proved Saturday night in Brazil, dropping legendary featherweight Jose Aldo with the oldest trick in the book, the old one-two.
A jab opened his defenses. The subsequent right hand dropped him on his backside. The rest was just a matter of time. With his win, Holloway ascended the throne as the top featherweight in the world, perhaps relegating the great Aldo to the history books.
“He had everything I wanted,” Holloway told Fox Sports 1. “But his time is over. Welcome to the Blessed era…The man is the GOAT, but this is my reign now.”
With Aldo’s decline has come an increased focus on his legacy. For six long years after winning the WEC championship from Mike Brown in 2009, he dominated everyone in his path at 145 pounds. As champion of the WEC and later the UFC, Aldo won nine consecutive fights against some of the best competitors in the sport.
While his title reign was defined by the numerous fights he didn’t show up for as much as it was his eventual victories, his exploits when he managed to make it to the cage will live forever with the sport’s hardcore fans. The spectacular eight-second knockout win over Cub Swanson, the brutal destruction of Urijah Faber’s leg and the casual way he wrecked refugees from lightweight like Frankie Edgar and Kenny Florian more than establish his bona fides.
Aldo is without a doubt the most accomplished fighter his weight class has ever known and a first ballot Hall of Famer. His cumulative success cannot be denied, his long reign atop the division proving his greatness to even the most hardened skeptics. But, at the peak of his powers, Aldo was not the best featherweight of all time.
That honor belongs to ConorMcGregor.
You remember ConorMcGregor right? Before devoting his life to auditioning for a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, he was the most popular fighter in UFC history, exploding the dubious, long-held belief that smaller fighters couldn’t draw in mixed martial arts.
As he becomes more caricature than man, it will be harder and harder to recall a time when McGregor was just an athlete. Lost in the snap of paparazzi cameras and the absurdities of his burgeoning celebrity is the key to his considerable appeal—McGregor is an amazing fighter.
In two short years, he wiped out the featherweight division, dropping contender after contender to the mat with his deadly left hand. While Aldo seemed content to outpoint everyone he fought, winning five of his seven title bouts in the UFC by decision, McGregor displayed a killer instinct the likes of which the sport has rarely seen.
Six men entered the cage against him en route to the championship. Five didn’t survive to hear the final bell—only Holloway managed that honor, in part because McGregortore his left ACL during that fight.
Despite the injury, he beat the man who is now champion decisively.
McGregor‘s featherweight journey culminated in an epic fight against Aldo for the championship of the world. Before the bout, the two men toured the world, creating unprecedented interest for a division that had consistently failed at the box office during Aldo’s time on top.
It was here, in front of an adoring press and enraptured fans, that McGregor truly established the persona that would drive his rise to the top of the sport. He was in his element the moment the cameras came on, emasculating Aldo over and over again, his silver tongue turning out to be every bit the weapon his left hand is.
Eventually, however, a prize fight moves from behind the microphone to the center of the Octagon. But the change of venue did little to change the outcome. McGregor remained dominant, knocking Aldo cold in just 13 seconds, a devastating loss that will always linger over any discussion of the Brazilian’s otherwise brilliant career.
McGregor, once champion, never fought at featherweight again. Why bother with a draining weight cut when the 155 pound division was ripe for the taking? The Irishman would go on to take UFC gold in there too, looking even stronger, fresher and healthier than he had at featherweight.
The brevity of his time in the division means McGregor can never be considered the greatest fighter in featherweight history. That remains Aldo until Holloway builds a competing claim of his own.
But, at his apex, McGregor was the absolute best, a brief flicker of light in a division that desperately needed a star’s shine.
Jonathan Snowden covers combat sports for Bleacher Report.
Max Holloway certainly isn’t opposed to making his first title defense in Hawaii. “Blessed” walked into the Jeunesse Arena as the interim Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight title holder and walked out as the undisputed champion. He did so in hostile territory, but the Brazilian crowd showed respect for the new 145-pound ruler. Now that he […]
Max Holloway certainly isn’t opposed to making his first title defense in Hawaii. “Blessed” walked into the Jeunesse Arena as the interim Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight title holder and walked out as the undisputed champion. He did so in hostile territory, but the Brazilian crowd showed respect for the new 145-pound ruler. Now that he […]
Cub Swanson believes he is the man to challenge new UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway. Assigned to work the UFC 212 coverage for FOX Sports over the weekend, Swanson used his time to make a call to face “Blessed” following his win over Jose Aldo. “Clearly me. We had a good go at it. He […]
Cub Swanson believes he is the man to challenge new UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway. Assigned to work the UFC 212 coverage for FOX Sports over the weekend, Swanson used his time to make a call to face “Blessed” following his win over Jose Aldo. “Clearly me. We had a good go at it. He […]
It still feels wrong to see Jose Aldo get beat up.
Somehow, though, there he stood in the closing moments of Saturday’s UFC 212 pay-per-view, bloodied and bruised in the middle of the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro after losing his men’s featherweigh…
It still feels wrong to see Jose Aldo get beat up.
Somehow, though, there he stood in the closing moments of Saturday’s UFC 212 pay-per-view, bloodied and bruised in the middle of the Jeunesse Arena in Rio deJaneiro after losing his men’s featherweight title to Max Holloway via third-round TKO.
A hematoma the size of a croquet ball was forming on the side of his head, and the expression on his face said he couldn’t quite believe it.
He was not alone. An announced live crowd of 15,412 in his home country were all making the same face. Maybe quite a few people watching at home were, too.
It’s not that it was shocking to see Holloway beat Aldo. On the contrary, the 25-year-old Hawaiian was a chic pick to win this title unification fight and had even spent some time as the betting favorite the week of the event, per OddsShark.com (h/t Bloody Elbow).
It’s just that after nearly seven years and 15-straight fights where Aldo held the featherweight class in his terrifying sway, we got used to seeing him a certain way.
This man was a destroyer. A killer. For a long time, he was the only 145-pound champion the Octagon had ever known, the greatest featherweight fighter ever and one of most dominant titlists in UFC history.
Suddenly, there he was looking like this—again:
The first time we saw Aldo get unceremoniously dethroned, of course, was in his stunning 13-second KO loss to ConorMcGregor at UFC 194 in December 2015.
That time, it was so startling and over so quickly—just a single, devastating left hand from McGregor during the first real exchange of the fight—it took on an almost dream-like quality. The way Aldo’s body dropped lifelessly to the canvas didn’t seem quite real.
This time, arguably, was worse.
This time, we’d already witnessed Aldo’s redemption. In the wake of that mystique-shattering defeat by McGregor, he’d battled back to beat Frankie Edgar at UFC 200 to recapture an interim version of the title. Four months later, after McGregorwas stripped of his featherweight belt by the UFC and embarked on a lengthy paternity leave, Aldo was promoted to undisputed champion.
He’d looked good enough cruising to a unanimous decision over Edgar to convince us that he was still his old, frightening self—but a victory over Holloway was the one Aldo truly needed.
The 5’11” Holloway was the archetype for the modern UFC featherweight—big, young and exceedingly skilled. He rode into this fight atop one of the company’s most impressive win streaks, with 10 consecutive victories and an interim title of his own, after a third-round TKO over former lightweight champ Anthony Pettis at UFC 206.
Aldo dictated the first 10 minutes of the fight, using the crisp, powerful boxing combinations that had been his calling card throughout his UFC career. In the first, he stunned Holloway with a straight right and a left hook, pushing him back against the fence with a flurry of punches and a thudding knee to the face.
At that point, it appeared the old lion would have his day.
Meanwhile, Holloway looked uncharacteristically stiff and timid in the early going. His trademark high-volume pressure style was absent, and he wasn’t alternating stances between orthodox and southpaw, as had been his practice during his run to this title fight.
As the fight wore on, however, Aldo began to slow down, and Holloway’s coaches called for him to ratchet-up his attack. By the third, Aldo looked flat-footed but still dangerous when Holloway dropped him to the canvas with a pair of jab-cross combinations.
Once the fight hit the mat, Aldo fought to survive, weathering some heavy leather and warding off a rear-naked choke attempt from Holloway. Eventually, however, he wound up turtled on the floor with the younger fighter on his back. Holloway rained down punch after punch until referee John McCarthy stepped in to stop the action.
The immediate impression was of a sudden swing in the momentum, leading to a bitter second serving of heartbreak for the once-great champion.
When it was over and the experts parsed through Aldo’s performance, a couple of things stood out. First, that his mid-fight drop-off, which has been his Achilles heel throughout his career, opened the door for Holloway to find his rhythm and put this fight away.
Second, that Aldo fought nearly 15 minutes without throwing a single leg kick, the powerful and disruptive technique that had epitomized his long, successful career.
The mood for Holloway was pure jubilation as he received the title in the cage. He’d waited a long time to get this shot and in the absence of McGregor—who is off chasing a boxing match against Floyd Mayweather—this win marked the dawning of a new era at featherweight.
If there’s a silver lining here, even for Aldo fans, it’s that the new champion is truly likable.
“I went out there, took my time, and it was my night,” Holloway told Fox Sports after the fight, via CBS Sports’ Lyle Fitsimmons. “Slow and steady always wins the race. I’ve got five rounds. I knew he would fade and I took advantage as the shots opened. I was in there to fight. My game plan was to go out there and fight. This [isn’t] a sprint. Everything turned out the way I wanted to.”
Yet Aldo has been such a staple in the MMA world for so long, it’s difficult to see him go out like this. For years, it seemed like a given he would go down as the greatest 145-pound fighter in UFC history. Now, this pair of losses might well end up defining his legacy.
His supremacy over the division was smothering during his heyday, putting up nine consecutive title defenses from 2009-2015 across the WEC and UFC. He beat Urijah Faber in the WEC‘s only PPV bout, beat Chad Mendes twice, beat Edgar twice.
At the same time, however, Aldo never cracked the glass ceiling to become a full-fledged promotional monster for the UFC. His title run was beset by injuries and—after the highlight-filled swath he cut through the WEC before the UFC absorbed the smaller company in 2010—it was somewhat underwhelming by comparison.
He won just two fights in the Octagon by stoppage, while six went to decision. Granted, he was taking on the rest of the best featherweights in the world and in most cases running circles around them, but after seven stoppages in eight WEC fights—including some jaw-dropping highlights, like his eight-second, double-flying knee KO of Cub Swanson at WEC 41—we knew he was capable of greater things.
Now, it’s possible Aldo’s reign will be framed as defining only the early days of the featherweight division. He found much of his success against smaller, grappling-based foes, before longer, better-rounded fighters like McGregor and Holloway showed up on the scene.
It bears repeating that Aldo isn’t done yet. He’s put 13 years and 29 fights into this sport and, if he chooses to carry on, could conceivably have five or six years of prime fighting life left in him. He remains a dangerous matchup for anyone at this weight and could certainly work his way back to contender status.
The waters before him now will be largely uncharted, however, as he makes the transition from perennial champion to aging foil.
Meanwhile, the division opens up for Holloway with the promise of a fresh matchup against Edgar, a potential rematch with Swanson and a possible future meeting with fellow young gun Yair Rodriguez.
Aldo will be locked out of that picture for the time being.
Until he can change his fortunes, our lasting image of him may well be as the guy crouched against the cage with his head in his hands, being consoled by teammates as he tries to make sense of what just happened to him.
And we might never get used to seeing him like that.
The mixed martial arts are constantly evolving, techniques coming in and out of favor as fighters discover what works and what doesn’t in the world’s most demented scientific laboratory—the UFC’s Octagon. But sometimes it’s the old standbys that work best, as Max “Blessed” Holloway proved Saturday night in Brazil, dropping legendary featherweight