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UFC 179: Aldo vs. Mendes 2 Fight Card, TV Info, Predictions and More

The first time Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes met, the former landed a knee that sent the latter into la la land. What happened next created one of the most iconic scenes in the UFC’s history. Aldo spilled out into the crowd at the HSBC Arena in Rio de…

The shot of a victorious Aldo among a sea of adoring Brazilian fans is unforgettable.

On Saturday, the two men will have their long-awaited rematch. The arena has changed, but the bout will still be in Rio de Janeiro, where Aldo is so beloved. Can Mendes overcome the huge home-field advantage and one of the sport’s best fighters?

We can’t wait to find out.

The co-feature will see another Brazilian favorite, Glover Teixeira, battle fellow light heavyweight contender Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis. Both men are coming off losses in their last bout. Teixeira was beaten silly by Jon “Bones” Jones, and Davis was pounded by Anthony “Rumble” Johnson at UFC 172 in April.

The winner will be able to thrust himself back in line for a title shot in the near future.

Here’s a look at the viewing information, complete card and predictions for the event from the Maracanazinho Gymnasium. Just below the table is a closer look at the two featured fights.

Teixeira Will Punish Davis

Mr. Wonderful has an excellent base skill as a wrestler, but he has never developed much beyond his grappling prowess. Because of this, he’s in deep water any time he can’t take a fight to the ground. Per Fight Metric, Davis lands only 35 percent of his strikes.

Moreover, despite his muscular build, he doesn’t have consistent KO ability. That’s evidenced by the fact that just two of his wins have come in that fashion. The power may be there, but the technique and commitment to delivering hard shots is absent from Davis’ game.

Teixeira wins this fight simply because he’s the more complete fighter. He lands 42 percent of his strikes, and he defends 75 percent of the takedowns attempted against him, per Fight Metric. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt will thwart Davis’ attempts to take him down. Teixeira will pick him apart with hard punches en route to a decision win.

Aldo Will Win Tougher Rematch

Another spectacular KO win could happen for Aldo, but don’t bet on it. Mendes has likely been replaying the first fight over and over in his head for two years.

He’ll be cautiously aggressive against the champion—especially early in the fight.

Speed and sophisticated striking are Aldo’s best weapons, but he’s also an underrated grappler. He prefers to stand and fight, as does Mendes. Because both fighters are dynamic, explosive and seek to fight the same style, their fights will always be entertaining.

In this one, Mendes will have his moments in top control on Aldo. He’s built to pursue success in ground-and-pound. Mendes will look to wear the champion down, as it is believed Aldo is perhaps vulnerable late in fights.

It’s a good strategy, but Aldo has excellent escapability and he’s crafty. Ricardo Lamas had similar ideas and wasn’t able to solve Aldo. The champion will do the better striking work and earn a close unanimous decision to retain the title.

Bring on Conor McGregor.

Follow Brian Mazique on Twitter. I dig boxing and MMA.

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UFC 179 Weigh-in Results and Updates

UFC 179 will see its 11-fight card become official on Friday afternoon when the fighters hit the scale.
Jose Aldo’s featherweight title defense against Chad Mendes headlines the action from Rio de Janeiro. This will be the second time these two have fa…

UFC 179 will see its 11-fight card become official on Friday afternoon when the fighters hit the scale.

Jose Aldo‘s featherweight title defense against Chad Mendes headlines the action from Rio de Janeiro. This will be the second time these two have faced off against one another. The last time was in 2012 when Aldo won by knockout over the American.

Glover Teixeira, the No. 4-ranked light heavyweight, takes on No. 6-ranked Phil Davis in the co-main event.

Bleacher Report will have full coverage of the weigh-in proceedings when they get underway. The first fighter is scheduled to hit the scale at 2 p.m. ET.

UFC 179 Fight Card

Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes
Glover Teixeira vs. Phil Davis
Fabio Maldonado vs. Hans Stringer
Darren Elkins vs. Lucas Martins
Carlos Diego Ferreira vs. Beneil Dariush
William Macario vs. Neil Magny
Yan Cabral vs. Naoyuki Kotani
Scott Jorgensen vs. Wilson Reis
Felipe Arantes vs. Andre Fili
Gilbert Burns vs. Christos Giagos
Fabricio Camoes vs. Tony Martin

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UFC 179: 3 Fighters with the Most to Gain

UFC 179 will set the stage for three fighters whose victories would speak volumes. On October 25, Chad Mendes will attempt to wrest away the featherweight title for a second time from the reigning champion, Jose Aldo. He suffered his only loss to the champion at UFC 142, having been viciously knocked out at the end of the first round. Mendes seeks redemption but will have to weather the storm in Aldo’s home country of Brazil.

Phil Davis, on the other hand, will give great efforts to remain relevant among the light heavyweight division’s top echelon of fighters. His stock severely fell after dropping a one-sided decision to Anthony Johnson in his previous fight, and a loss to his opponent at UFC 179 would place him completely out of title contention status.

Lastly, Beneil Dariush is making strides in the lightweight division and has his sights set on finishing his Brazilian counterpart, Diego Ferreira. If the Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace in Dariush is victorious, he’ll more than likely face name lightweight opponents, such as Michael Johnson and Eddie Alvarez, in his next outing.

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UFC 179: Glover Teixeira vs. Phil Davis Full Head-to-Toe Breakdown

This Saturday, UFC 179 goes down in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, as Jose Aldo puts his featherweight title on the line when he takes on Chad Mendes in a rematch of their battle from UFC 142.
In the co-main event, one-time light heavyweight title challenger,…

This Saturday, UFC 179 goes down in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, as Jose Aldo puts his featherweight title on the line when he takes on Chad Mendes in a rematch of their battle from UFC 142.

In the co-main event, one-time light heavyweight title challenger, Glover Teixeira, faces off against No. 6-ranked contender, Phil Davis.

Teixeira comes into the fight following a losing title effort against Jon Jones at UFC 172, as he was thoroughly dominated and lost the fight 50-45 on all scorecards.

Davis also fought and lost by unanimous decision at UFC 172, as he was beaten badly by Anthony Johnson for 15 minutes en route to a 30-27 loss on all scorecards.

These two will be looking to get back on track in a big way, so let’s take a look at who has the edge in a full head-to-toe breakdown of this light heavyweight bout.

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If Jose Aldo Means to Be an All-Time UFC Great, Time to Impress Is Now

Don’t get me wrong, Jose Aldo has been a very good champion for the UFC.
Aldo, in fact, is the only featherweight titlist the Octagon has ever known. By the time the UFC absorbed the WEC at the end of 2010, he’d so firmly entrenched himself…

Don’t get me wrong, Jose Aldo has been a very good champion for the UFC.

Aldo, in fact, is the only featherweight titlist the Octagon has ever known. By the time the UFC absorbed the WEC at the end of 2010, he’d so firmly entrenched himself as the best 145-pounder in the world, executives merely “promoted” him to the rank of UFC champion without bothering to have him fight for it.

It was the right move. Today, he’s the fight company’s longest reigning champ. As he approaches a UFC 179 rematch with Chad Mendes on Saturday, he’s No. 2 on the organization’s official pound-for-pound rankings. His streak of successful UFC/WEC title defenses stands at eight and—perhaps most astounding of all—he’s the proud owner of 17 consecutive overall victories.

All impressive numbers from any vantage.

But “very good” has never been good enough for a guy with as much potential as Aldo.

There was a time back in his WEC days when he appeared poised to take his place among MMA’s all-time greats. His run through the UFC’s kid brother organization established him as one of the most exciting and terrifying fighters on the planet. He seemed like the perfect person to shepherd the featherweight division out of the company’s smaller blue cage and into the limelight.

With his fearsome (sometimes otherworldly) striking skills and perfectly scarred face, Aldo felt predestined to be a superstar on the order of Chuck Liddell, Georges St-Pierre or even Brock Lesnar.

Unfortunately, that guy never really showed up in the Octagon. During his UFC run, Aldo has seldom appeared vulnerable, but he’s also seldom appeared truly great.

He’s been hampered by an endless string of physical ailments, including yet another injury to his neck that caused the cancellation of UFC 176 in August. He’s survived a close call against Mark Hominick, but has otherwise breezed through fairly nondescript wins over the likes of Kenny Florian, Frankie Edgar and Ricardo Lamas.

In the WEC he was a human highlight reel, but his UFC appearances have been typified by technical but unmemorable brilliance. His leg kicks are splendid, his punches near flawless, but signature moments have been few and far between.

Even in bouts that appeared ripe for him to make a statement—like against Lamas at UFC 169—it occasionally appeared that Aldo was content to grind out lopsided, but run-of-the-mill decisions.

Meanwhile, even as he’s scuffled, a strange thing has happened around him. The featherweight division is suddenly as robust and interesting as it ever has been. Where once it seemed like the champion’s dominance would never be questioned, there is suddenly an intriguing gaggle of contenders nipping at his heels.

It starts this weekend with Mendes, who has been on an absolute tear since a somewhat controversial loss to Aldo in January 2012. The Team Alpha Male product had afforded himself fairly well throughout the first round at UFC 142, before Aldo employed a blatant cage grab to avoid being down, wheeled on Mendes and knocked him out with a knee to the jaw one second before the horn.

(Remember what we said about signature moments? That was one of Aldo’s best, but even it was marred by the previous rules violation.)

In the wake of the defeat, Mendes has put together five straight wins (four of them by stoppage), each one giving the impression his stand-up abilities have caught up with his Division I All-American wrestling skills.

If Aldo can defeat the much-improved Mendes—and maybe even do so in impressive fashion—it could set the stage for a very profitable and high-profile 2015. If the longtime champion can just stay healthy and reconnect with his inner knockout artist, he might even get the chance to prove he can still be a promotional dynamo.

A springtime rematch with Cub Swanson or Edgar could be in the offing. After that, a big ticket bout with Conor McGregor will certainly be waiting and near the end of the 2015, perhaps Dennis Bermudez, too. Where before there had been talk that Aldo might move up to lightweight to face champion Anthony Pettis in a superfight, it suddenly seems like his best course of action is to stay home.

Despite the tribulations of the last few years, he’s still only 28 years old. Theoretically, he’s still in the heart of his athletic prime and the greatest challenges of his MMA career may be at hand.

In other words, the time to take the ball and run with it is now. The 145-pound class will be garnering a lot of eyeballs over the next 12 months or so. It would be sort of a shame if the man to lead the lighter weight classes into the promised land turned out to be McGregor, not Aldo.

No, it would be far better for the UFC’s last Brazilian champion to finally seize the brass ring that has seemed so tantalizingly close for much of his career. Fact is, he still has an outside shot at lofting himself into the stratus of the all-time greats. He can still make good on the promise of his early WEC days.

Will he ever be the superstar he once seemed destined to be?

Maybe not, but with a new crop of contenders suddenly reshaping the future of the featherweight division, he’s about to get his best chance yet.

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With a Win at UFC 179, Could Carlos Diego Ferreira Be Contender Material?

If Carlos Diego Ferreira wants to prove his mettle, he’ll have to beat Beneil Dariush this Saturday at UFC 179.
Dariush is not the most glamorous name in the UFC lightweight division, but he’s a dangerous opponent for Ferreira, one of the brightes…

If Carlos Diego Ferreira wants to prove his mettle, he’ll have to beat Beneil Dariush this Saturday at UFC 179.

Dariush is not the most glamorous name in the UFC lightweight division, but he’s a dangerous opponent for Ferreira, one of the brightest prospects in the weight class right now. If Ferreira can overcome this latest challenge and run his UFC record to a perfect 3-0 (and 12-0 as a pro), the 29-year-old may force his way past that velvet rope that keeps all of us mortals out of the contender section.

If nothing else, a win would probably help him prove one of two things: first, that he has some of the best jiu-jitsu in the division, and second, that his overall game is evolving into more of a complete threat.

Taking the former first, Ferreira is a second-degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He doesn’t have the global bona fides or flashy camp name of some of his fellow Brazil natives (Ferreira now lives in the United States, by the way), but his accomplishments in the cage do plenty of their own talking. Six of his 11 pro wins have come by submission; he’s no one-trick pony either, using four different moves to garner those tapouts.

And look at what he did to Colton Smith in his UFC debut. Ferreira made the scrappy grinder and The Ultimate Fighter winner look utterly ordinary, choking out the Army veteran in a mere 38 seconds. It encapsulated what makes Ferreira dangerous in that phase: Give him one tiny crevice and he will bull his way through. You don’t have to ask him twice to do something slick and mean with a wayward arm or idle breath.

The standing phase is his work in progress. He doesn’t have the power double or the razor-sharp striking attack one typically needs to get the action horizontal.

Ramsey Nijem can tell you all about Ferreira’s punching power, but Ferreira is not the kind of muay thai mad surgeon they produce in places like Nova Uniao. He’s a counterpuncher who is waiting to spring his trap on those who wade in.

Dariush will probably try to wade in, as he likes to go for the takedown or trip from the clinch. There is opportunity there for Ferreira. Dariush—who was knocked out by Nijem earlier this year—is an unabashed (and very, very good) grappling specialist.

If Ferreira can sprawl out those takedown attempts or punish Dariush with strikes, that would be a good sign. Dariush is no Anderson Silva, so Ferreira should test himself in space by firing off some punch-kick combinations.

If he can pass those sorts of tests and keep clear of Dariush’s takedowns and extended top control, it would be an impressive effort indeed. Would a win put him in line for a title shot? Of course not, especially in a division as stacked as lightweight.

Would it push him into the next level of name fighters? With an impressive win that demonstrates further skill and evolution, the answer could very well be in the affirmative.

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