By Safeer MS
Jose Aldo is arguably the greatest featherweight fighter in the history of MMA, evidenced by his 10-year reign as the champion, in the UFC and WEC. When Aldo retired from the sport, he was ranked 3rd in the bantamweight division and was soon inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in the modern wing. The Brazilian had been boxing after he announced his retirement after he lost to Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 278. As he has a fight left in his contract, Aldo urged the UFC to book a fight with fellow legend Dominick Cruz at UFC 301 in Rio but had to settle with an MMA fight against a surging contender in Jonathan Martinez.
Will Jose Aldo be victorious at UFC 301?
Jose Aldo’s weapons of destruction were his exceptional takedown defense and heavy leg kicks. Moreover, he has tremendous boxing, throwing combinations left and right in his last few fights in the UFC. Since he competed thrice in boxing after UFC 278, Aldo's skills should be evolved. Similarly, Martinez's game is based on his leg kicks as he battered the legs of Adrian Yanez as he secured a TKO victory. Unfortunately for Martinez, Aldo happens to be an exceptional leg-kick defender in addition to being an attacker.
Martinez is on a six-fight winning streak in the division but all the six he beat were not on the skill level of Aldo. The American’s last loss was in 2021, against Davey Grant via KO. Aldo punches harder than Grant and a clean shot could end the fight then and there. However, Martinez has shown exceptional defense under the tutelage of Marc Montoya and has stayed behind his leg kicks to set up combinations with his hands. The only fighters who outboxed Aldo were Max Holloway and Petr Yan.
Holloway and Yan do not kick that often but Martinez does but Aldo is a good defender of kicks. It is a classic situation to prove why MMA math does not work. Aldo is not coming back from retirement to fight Martinez. Aldo has been training hard in boxing. Moreover, his recent interest in becoming a champion is extra motivation. After all, Sean O’Malley is the champion of the division and the UFC would very much like to have O’Malley have Aldo’s name on his resume. Even though he is much older than his opponent at UFC 301, Aldo is in great shape and is motivated to become champion. As such, he will likely be victorious at UFC 301.
