UFC 142: Technical Breakdown of Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes

At UFC 142, Jose Aldo will defend his featherweight title against Chad Mendes. At first glance, the bout is another classic "striker vs. grappler" matchup, but if we take a closer look, there's a lot more coming into play.

Aldo looked indestructible during his WEC run, demolishing anyone and everyone put in front of him. His aura of invincibility has disappeared somewhat following two lackluster performances in the UFC.

Mendes meanwhile has gone undefeated throughout his career, defeating a number of tough opponents like Erik Koch, Cub Swanson, and Rani Yahya, among others.

The battle for the featherweight title promises to be an interesting one as Mendes will look to impose his will on Aldo, but will need to find some success with his striking as well.

Striking Breakdown

If the fight remains on the feet, most people would pick Jose Aldo to win, and with good reason. Aldo has the ability to end a fight at any second, evident from his KO of Cub Swanson.

Against Mark Hominick, we saw Aldo rely on a lot of head movement, but didn't use as much footwork as one would like to see from a high-level striker. He was still caught a few times by Hominick and Kenny Florian had some success as well.

Of course, Chad Mendes is nowhere near on the same level as Hominick and Florian. Mendes will likely look to land a power shot rather than work combinations.

Mendes helped train Urijah Faber for his bout against Aldo, but Mendes believes he will be better prepared than his teammate.

"When Urijah fought him, we didn’t red-flag his leg kicks, but obviously we have prepared for that in this fight,” Mendes relayed, "although that is but one small piece of the overall puzzle." (MMAWeekly.com)

We will see if Mendes is capable of handling the dangerous striking of Aldo.

Wrestling Breakdown

Perhaps the best glimpse into Jose Aldo's grappling came in his bout against Mark Hominick. Aldo was able to take Hominick down five times (according to Fightmetric) but also had that disastrous fifth round. In that final frame, Aldo was put on his back and on the receiving end of some heavy punches from Hominick.

Kenny Florian attempted to use his grappling to wear down Aldo, but failed to change his strategy after it clearly wasn't working.

Chad Mendes is a whole different animal compared to Aldo's past two opponents. Mendes' wrestling is some of the best in the division and will be the best Aldo has seen since his bout with Urijah Faber.

Faber had too much confidence in his standup and paid the price with some devastating leg kicks. Look for Mendes to avoid that and attempt to take Aldo down right away. Mendes certainly has confidence coming into the bout.

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"The Aldo camp saying I am not ready for a title shot? They don’t know how good I am,” said Mendes on Wednesday. “They’ve never fought me or trained with me. I am very, very ready for this title shot. He has great takedown defense, but my type of shot is a ‘blast-you-off-your-feet’ type of shot." (MMAWeekly.com)

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Grappling Breakdown

This is one area that is a question mark coming into the bout. Jose Aldo is a legit Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and certainly possesses the ability to submit anyone, but has only attempted one submission throughout his career.

Chad Mendes has used his top control to avoid the submission attempts of some very good grapplers. A great grappler like Rani Yahya was unable to use his jiu-jitsu in their bout.

However, Michihiro Omigawa was able to threaten with a few submisison attempts in his match with Mendes.

It won't be enough for Mendes to simply take Aldo down. The takedowns will score points for Mendes on the score cards but the threat of an Aldo submission has to be on his mind.

Mendes will need to pass Aldo's guard and work his ground strikes to  wear the champion down.

The X-Factor

Looking at Jose Aldo's fights, there's a clear difference between the WEC version from the UFC version.

There are two possible theories for the reason Aldo has looked more human in his UFC bouts. The first is that he's been fighting better competition, which is plausible given Mark Hominick and Kenny Florian are a level above the Cub Swanson and Manny Gamburians of the world.

The other reason is Aldo's weight cutting issues. If you'd like an insight into the difficulty Aldo has with making 145-pounds, watch this behind the scenes video of his weight cut for UFC 129.

Aldo is a young man who's still growing into his body and if he wants to keep fighting at featherweight, he's going to have to get the weight cutting issue under control.

A fighter like Mendes is going to use his top-notch wrestling to wear Aldo out. Mendes doesn't really look to finish a fight in an instant and has a style much like Jon Fitch.

If Aldo has another tough weight cut, Mendes will expose his cardio issues with his grinding style.

Fight Preview

The longer this fight goes on, the better it is for Chad Mendes. Jose Aldo has shown that weight cutting is beginning to affect his fight performance, and if the fight goes into the later rounds, the takedowns will get easier and easier for Mendes.

Aldo has the one-strike power to end the fight at any moment, something Mendes doesn't have. Of course with four ounce gloves, a fight could end with any punch.

Hopefully Aldo will find his killer instinct in this fight, with the Brazillian crowd giving him some extra adrenaline. If he comes out flat, look for "Money" Mendes to hit the jackpot and take the title from Brazil.