Jose Aldo knew he’d be in for a long night when he faced Frankie Edgar. The former lightweight champion has made it a habit to stick around for the entire length of a fight, never slowing down.In the beginning, it looked as if Aldo’s striking would be …
Jose Aldo knew he’d be in for a long night when he faced Frankie Edgar. The former lightweight champion has made it a habit to stick around for the entire length of a fight, never slowing down.
In the beginning, it looked as if Aldo’s striking would be too much for Edgar, as he avoided the former lightweight’s strikes and answered back with some of his own.
As the minutes passed, it looked like Edgar’s pace began to take its toll on Aldo. But in the end, Aldo did enough to hold onto his UFC featherweight title belt.
Where did Aldo win the fight? When did Edgar nearly take the title away? How did the champion retain his belt?
All those answers and more are in this breakdown of Aldo’s performance against the challenger Edgar.
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…
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.
The ever-shifting amoeba that is the UFC light heavyweight division continued to morph on Saturday night during the UFC 156 event which featured a bout between two top-10 stars—Rashad Evans and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.Evans (-345) came into the …
The ever-shifting amoeba that is the UFC light heavyweight division continued to morph on Saturday night during the UFC 156 event which featured a bout between two top-10 stars—Rashad Evans and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
Evans (-345) came into the bout as the favorite, but was never quite able to get anything going. His typically smooth style wasn’t working for him against Nogueira, who played into Evans’ perceived strength on the feet and tagged him multiple times throughout the bout.
In the end it was the underdog Nogueira (+265) who came out with the victory by judges’ decision.
The fight, of course, changed the course of the UFC light heavyweight division, so let’s take a look at the 10 best UFC light heavyweights after Saturday night’s UFC 156 event.
UFC 156 was one of the best shows of the past year for the company, but another tough loss for veteran fan-favorite Frankie Edgar has many experts questioning what’s next for the former champion.Edgar must go back to the drawing board and find ou…
UFC 156 was one of the best shows of the past year for the company, but another tough loss for veteran fan-favorite Frankie Edgar has many experts questioning what’s next for the former champion.
Edgar must go back to the drawing board and find out which weight class will fit his mix of speed and power; that would likely mean a jump back up to lightweight.
If Edgar squares off with a top-tier talent like Nate Diaz, EdsonBarboza or Anthony Pettis and can walk away victorious, there is little doubt that he can once again get a shot at Benson Henderson and the UFC Lightweight Championship.
As great as Edgar was in his prime and still is to this day, the former champion knows he ran into an even more impressive fighter in Henderson for his title, and those two losses forced the switch to the lighter weight class.
Five rounds with Jose Aldo in the featherweight division later, and Edgar realizes he ran into another superior fighter at at UFC 156.
Fuel TV analyst and current UFC fighter ChaelSonnen spoke after the fight (h/t NowBoxing.com) about how this was more about Aldo winning the fight than Edgar losing:
What surprised me about Frankie was that he was fast, but he didn’t have the advantage. Frankie threw punches and some landed, but some didn’t. Jose threw less punches, but they all landed. Jose slowed down in the fight, but he didn’t back down. His accuracy was amazing. Edgar is known for going down, but getting back up. He got hurt, but stood his ground. Jose stuffed most of the takedowns. It was like running into a brick wall. I tell you, I resisted it in the past, but Jose has won me over now. He’s spectacular. Yes, Frankie is resilient. It’s like calling Kate Upton mildly attractive.
Edgar became a star in the UFC after his storied feud with Gray Maynard, but it was the lightweight championship the veteran fighter successfully defended three times that has many fans considering him one of the best in the division’s history.
There is no doubt that Edgar still has plenty of talent and could be the No. 1 contender in two different weight classes, but his inability to get over the championship hump is starting to tarnish the fighter’s legacy.
With a 1-3-1 record over his past five fights, there is nothing overly impressive about how Edgar has finished his bouts. The veteran brawler has been in contention throughout each battle, but the inability to put elite talent away is the star’s ultimate downfall.
A fighter can’t win championships in the UFC without beating the best, and Edgar has proven over the past two years that he has struggled with elite talent since losing the lightweight title.
Featherweights Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar went toe-to-toe in the main event of UFC 156. It was a hotly anticipated superfight that promised to either confirm Aldo’s status as a pound-for-pound great or see Frankie Edgar crowned as the third dual-divis…
Featherweights Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar went toe-to-toe in the main event of UFC 156. It was a hotly anticipated superfight that promised to either confirm Aldo’s status as a pound-for-pound great or see Frankie Edgar crowned as the third dual-division champion in UFC history.
Ultimately, Aldo picked apart Edgar in the early goings, busting open his nose and slamming “The Answer’s” thigh with leg kicks to win the first three frames.
The challenger rallied late and looked to steal the fight by outpacing his opponent, however, the deficit was too big to overcome without a stoppage.
Breaking down the action in the cage, we can see how Aldo was able to overcome Edgar’s constant pressure and pull off the biggest win of his UFC career.
Round 1 saw Edgar pushing forward and trying to close the distance while the champion stood his ground in the center of the cage while looking for counters. The shots that worked particularly well for the champion were a right uppercut and snapping jab that were fired as Edgar began to move forward.
Utilizing incredible kicking speed, Aldo won the first round after doing considerably more with shots to the legs and body as well as counterstrikes that greatly outnumbered Edgar’s output.
Round 2 saw Aldo show off his ability to time Frankie’s attack with a counter-jab, as well as his evasiveness when the challenger looked for takedowns. The leg kicks in this round were nasty enough that Edgar’s knee buckled on impact on numerous occasions.
Edgar scored some shots in this round, but ultimately wasn’t finding any substantial success at any point. For example, he caught a leg kick that earned him the only takedown of this round, but Aldo returned to his feet immediately.
Heading into the third frame, Aldo is up on the scorecards 20-18 without question.
Round 3 kicks off (pun intended) with Frankie catching a low kick to earn an immediate takedown. However, Aldo rose to his feet quickly and without absorbing any damage.
The Steven-Seagal-front-kick made an appearance in this round that busted open Edgar’s nose, but didn’t earn the highlight-reel knockout.
Frankie fought with more confidence in this round, landed more shots than previously and the gas tank of Aldo started to empty a little bit. The Answer is landing many leg kicks of his own and it’s slowing down the champ.
However, Jose is the better striker and landed more efficiently while effortlessly shucking off takedown attempts.
Joe Rogan talks to the home audience as if Edgar conceivably won the round, but it was 30-27 after three rounds as the fighters prepared for championship rounds.
Round 4 was the best of the five for Frankie as he continues to land kicks and push forward with his boxing combinations. However, halfway through the frame, Edgar misses yet another takedown attempt, which UFC statistics show us was the sixth failure in seven tries.
One of the key tactics of Frankie in this round was dropping his head to evade punches while coming in with an overhand strike. Not only did this work during standup exchanges, but it also allowed him to feign a punch and sneak past Aldo’s defenses for a slam takedown.
Frankie isn’t doing a lot of damage, but he clearly won Round 4 despite the ever-growing mouse under his left eye and bleeding from his nose.
Round 5 sees Frankie fighting with a sense of urgency that we haven’t seen at any point in the round. Although he continues throwing his leg kicks, head kicks became more common, and his punches had nastier intentions.
Aldo continued to shut out the takedown attempts and score counter punches, although Edgar isn’t being fooled when Jose chooses to strike first.
The challengers punching combinations are landing well, although Aldo delivered a springboard Superman punch off of the cage in the fight’s closing seconds.
Only one judge properly scored the fight 48-47, with the other two seeing it 49-46, all in favor of the champion.
The live crowd may have booed the decision, but it was by no means incorrect.
The champion used incredible technique to nearly double Frankie’s total output. Halfway through the final round, the UFC flashed the total head strike statistic, which saw Aldo ahead 133-to-77.
Using phenomenal takedown defense, he consistently forced Edgar to fight in the standup world, and his ability to dictate this fight’s location made all the difference in the world.
Technically speaking, this was a solid performance by Frankie against a fighter who is clearly one of the best pound-for-pound guys in the world. He was able to time the leg kicks of his opponent to score takedowns and changed up his timing during striking exchanges to avoid Aldo’s counter-attacks that were so effective early on.
The fact that Edgar can continue to do so well against the best fighters on the planet nullifies the fact that he is currently amid a three-fight losing streak.
It was billed as a superfight, and in many ways it was. Two men considered among the pound-for-pound best in MMA fought five gruelling rounds, but it was featherweight champion Jose Aldo who emerged victorious over his opponent, Frankie Edgar. Eve…
It was billed as a superfight, and in many ways it was. Two men considered among the pound-for-pound best in MMA fought five gruelling rounds, but it was featherweight champion Jose Aldo who emerged victorious over his opponent, Frankie Edgar.
Even though Edgar was dropping to 145 pounds for the first time in his career, Aldo still looked the bigger man, and in many ways, quicker.
He had a height, reach and speed advantage and used it effectively to keep his opponent at bay for most of the fight.
Edgar’s face was already bloody and his legs were taking the trademark Aldo beating. But the Brazilian was facing a much more resilient opponent than he’s used to and gave up throwing leg kicks after Edgar began checking them and eventually caught one—leading to a takedown.
That turned the fight in the third round. Aldo’s speed was waning, and he began losing the exchange on the feet as the match drew to a climax.
Aldo is known to fade in the later rounds, and he certainly did against both Mark Hominick and Kenny Florian. That’s when things begin to look the most dangerous for him, and it certainly seemed like Edgar was getting ready to pull one of his famous “Rocky Balboa” comebacks.
But, as often happens in Edgar fights, those kinds of comebacks prove only to be real in the movies.
His late surge just wasn’t enough, and while both men took damage in the fight, it was Edgar who came out worst.
In Aldo’s career, it was another assured performance as champion against one of the best fighters in the world and sets him on a path to move up to lightweight if he chooses.
Although he came out victorious, Jose Aldo has shown he’s very beatable after facing