A battle of champion v former champion in the main event of UFC 156 produced a brutal chess match in which The Answer just came up short.
While Chad Mendes may have given Aldo his toughest test in terms of damage, there is a case to be made for former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar coming the closest to usurping his 145 lb throne.
Edgar grew into the fight after Aldo’s initial dominance and out-scored the champion on the feet in the latter rounds. Had “Scarface” faced the much more polished Edgar of 2015 back then, it could well have been the New Jersey native giving Conor McGregor his title shot at UFC 194.
The Clinic
This bout started with the champion calmly measuring his opponent’s attacks and stating his authority early with forceful counters.
Edgar’s plan from the get-go was to pour the pressure on by rushing forward in search of either combinations or the takedown. Seeing this, the calculated Aldo drew him in, back-pedalled out of range and punished him with counter punches, mainly that trusty jab.
You could fault Edgar for not moving his head enough in the early exchanges, but in his defence, he had never faced a counter striker on the same level as Aldo before.
Once the Brazilian had figured out his opponent’s rhythm and recognised patterns in his attacks, he made slipping and clipping the fleet-footed wrestler-boxer look like child’s play.
Turning the tables
Eating those lightning quick jabs didn’t make Edgar hesitant. He knew allowing Aldo to intimidate him into taking a back step would only result in the champion getting his hand raised. Edgar absorbed every punch and continued to drive towards the centre of the Octagon staying outside the “red zone“.
Aldo has a considerably smaller gas tank than the little New Jersey Energizer bunny, and eventually the pace Edgar set started slowing him down. Edgar capitalised on Aldo’s fatigue by landing punches up top as he struggled to circle away.
He also threw another weapon into the mix, consistently scoring with the leg kick, which only prompted Aldo to start showcasing his own devastating ability with the kick.
However, with Aldo’s leg kicks among the most vaunted weapons in MMA, Edgar’s team had been preparing for them. After taking a few shin-stingers, he found the perfect response by catching it mid-flight, lading an overhand right and securing his first takedown of the night.
Aldo got back up but he was noticeably drained after that takedown. His mouth flopped open, his legs became heavy and although Edgar lost the round, he began gathering momentum.
All of a sudden, we had a fight on our hands.
Pilin’ pressure
Edgar’s precision and world class cardio kept him consistently scoring throughout the latter rounds. He relentlessly stalked the champion, forcing him to fight at an uncomfortably fast pace that wore him down and made his movement more labored.
Aldo became wary of using his leg kick after realising Edgar could use it as a means of getting the takedown, which was made known by the challenger outlanding him with the strike by 25 to 9 over the course of the fight. He not hit them with the force of a tsunami to put people on crutches like Aldo, but they all scored points and many weren’t checked.
Although most of his takedowns were being stuffed, Aldo had to work hard to stop them. This only sapped his energy levels further.
Edgar’s elite level wrestling was something Aldo had more than likely prepared for during his camp. Knowing that Aldo would be concentrating a lot of his efforts on not ending up on his back, Edgar pulled out half way through some takedown attempts and scored some nasty combinations up close with Aldo’s hands dropped, much like he did in his third fight with Gray Maynard.
When Aldo wised up to this technique, Edgar simply committed to shooting in and slammed him to the canvas with his second and last takedown of the bout.
Swagger Vance
Edgar outpointed Aldo in the championship rounds, having a 43 to 36 edge in terms of significant strikes from rounds three through five. However, Aldo won the fight via unanimous decision with two judges scoring four rounds in favour of “Scarface”, while just one thought Edgar nabbed two rounds.
Being outstruck for most of the fight and being taken down more times than his opponent isn’t usually a recipe for victory, but Aldo walked away from the Mandalay Bay Events Centre with the belt still wrapped around his waist.
He managed this by consistently scoring points with his jabs and counters, and landing the most memorable strike in the five-minute period.
Many felt that round three was a close call. All three judges gave it to the champion and one would suspect that the huge front kick to the face probably influenced their decision.
The same could be said for that flashy superman punch off the cage with literally seconds left until the final bell.
The fifth round was evenly fought up until that spectacular moment of flair from Aldo, and with Edgar being slightly busier on the feet. Jeff Collins was the only judge Octagonside who wasn’t dazzled enough by the punch to award Aldo the round.
This fight proved that Aldo is the archetype of the long-standing champion. He never put himself in any serious danger of being finished, and his expert sprawling and takedown defence took one of Edgar’s best weapons out of the equation, his ground and pound.
He did just enough to convince every judge that he won the fight and if anyone claimed that Edgar was robbed of another contentious decision, such as many thought happened to him in the Benson Henderson rematch, he could simply reply,
“Look at his face and look at mine.”
As we build up to UFC 194 we examined Aldo’s ability to boss the Octagon against Ricardo Lamas, as well as his ability to take Chad Mendes’ brutal punishment.
