Jose Has Gone Running

kruizinkareem
Nov 30, 2015
2 min read

For the last 10 years, we saw a dominant fighter who made most other fighters look like a few levels under him. Jose Aldo is without a doubt one of the best pound-for-pound fighters to ever fight in front of the camera.

Jose Aldo’s speed made other fighters seem a bit lagging, his power always made an impact on his opponents’ faces, and his leg kicks, ask Urijah Faber about them. Jose had no tough battles in the UFC; even Frankie “The Answer” Edgar had no answers to Aldo’s leg kicks and power. Then Chad Mendes came in, and he showed Jose Aldo what a real battle feels like.

When you look closely at the fight between Mendes and Aldo, you will see that they were both like action figures with a kid playing with them, every interaction between them was an impact, and the one with the better, longer combo won it. It was by no means a boring fight, in fact, it was just what everyone wanted to see.

Then came, the crazy irish, Conor Mcgregor in the game, talked a lot of trash, and made it to the top. Now he has a fleet of cars, a beautiful home, and some impressive collection of suits and watches, but we can’t say that’s all he has. The Notorious’ fighting capabilities are not just good, they are confusingly great. He’s left us wondering if we are hypnotized by his talking, or if he is the future of the modern fighter.

Mcgregor swore he can finish every opponent they put in front of him, and he has been doing just that since Max Hollaway, which was a fight he made look easy still. When they put Mendes in front of him, everyone thought that was it, it was time for the real test. Mcgregor did get taken down, but he worked from the bottom, he made his way back to his feet, and he made Chad’s striking look like they belong in a Monday evening beginners kick boxing class at your local UFC Gym.

Chad is not our topic, however; it’s Aldo that we are worried about. If there is anything we should be worried about, it’s Mcgregor’s power, reach, and unorthodox striking that comes at you from every direction. If we know anything about Jose Aldo, it is his hard kicks and fast, hard combos, which makes an impact. However, can Aldo deliver these combos as he eats a strong, irish left fist? And if he can eat it, how many can he eat before his face looks like the end of the Chad Mendes fight? How about the range?

Conor Mcgregor prides himself in being a fast, long fighter, which means when you come at him, he will change angles and strike with his long left hand, and when you stand in front of him, he will pressure you with god-knows-what. We don’t know what he

will be throwing at Aldo, but we are confident he will be throwing something. From body hits, right into the liver on the inhale to disrubt the oxygen flow, to spinning kicks; in other words, Jose will not know what to protect. We will watch Aldo tense his body up to protect his organs from the irish, we will see Aldo push through the punches to land his combos, and we may just see a desperate Aldo; and even though we can’t count a legend out, how far can he flex his body, move forward while eating punches, and try to step inside the jungle that is Conor Mcgregor’s bubble? We’ve all seen Jose Aldo gas out, but we’ve never seen Mcgregor tires. As he says, “I can go all day.”

Regardless of who wins this bout, which could very well go either way, I think we can all agree that UFC194 is perhaps the most exciting, anticipated fight to date. Whether Mcgregor shines, or Aldo proves to the world that talk is cheap, we’re all looking forward to both their game plans. So will Aldo show up, or has he gone running like Conor said?