Answer: survive. If he can make it through the first few rounds, he will have the best chance at dethroning the featherweight champ, and one of the greatest fighters in the world. Joe Rogan put it best at the UFC 162 Q&A the other day when asked by a fan, what he thought Chang Sung Jung’s chances were against Aldo at UFC 163.
Joe Rogan: “The big problem for Aldo is that he’s a lot bigger than 145lb’s and he loses a lot of weight and I think that hurts his performance. I think if Aldo fought at 155 he might even be better. Aldo is a monster, I mean he is one of the best fighter in the world, pound for pound, no doubt about it. But if you see his fights, he starts to slow down, towards the fourth or fifth round. I think the reason for that is the weight cut. I saw him in Toronto before one of his fights, he couldn’t even sit on the stage and do a Q&A because he was so weak because he was cutting the weight… So that would make it interesting, if the Korean Zombie could take it in to the fourth or fifth round, and he’s a very good grappler. You know Chang Sung Jung is a very good grappler.”
One other snippet that I removed from the quote above was Rogan’s absolute adulation of Aldo’s ability and talent. Aldo is a killer and like Rogan mentioned, he can put out any of his opponents with a single vicious move.
He did it against Cub Swanson and Chad Mendes with a single explosive knee to the face in both of those fights. He blasted Urijah Faber with leg kicks and brutalized most of his many other opponents with his signature style of brutality and accuracy.
But he has been known to slow down a bit near the end of fights if they approach the later rounds. In his first title defense in the UFC, he worked Mark Hominick over for most of the fight. Yet in the final round, Hominick stormed back and put the champ in more adversity than he had ever been up to that point in his career as champ.
Now a judges job is to score the fight according to what happens in every single round. Therefore if Aldo wins the first three, he should get the nod right? Well there is a natural tendency to award a fighter points for momentum in my opinion. So if the Korean Zombie can turn it up late in the fight, he has the best chance of dethroning Aldo than anyone before him.
As the featherweight division starts to heat up with contenders like Cub Swanson, Ricardo Lamas, and Frankie Edgar picking up steam, it will be an interesting couple of years for Jose Aldo. First he must contend with the Korean Zombie at UFC 163 on August 3rd, in Brazil.
~ UFC 162: Chris Weidman KO’d the greatest in Anderson Silva, now change is a comin’