Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes: UFC Featherweight Champion Aldo Is P4P King

At only 25 years old, Jose Aldo is already the UFC featherweight champion and has held the featherweight title in two companies without a loss since November of 2009.

UFC 142 was no different.

While middleweight champion Anderson Silva has held his belt longer, Aldo may be the pound-for-pound king of the ring in UFC.

The hardest part about deciding which fighter is the P4P toughest in the world is putting aside prejudice and looking at the body of work. Take a guy like Georges St. Pierre for example, the man has defended his belt successfully six times over the past four years, but hasn’t looked dominant during his last three fights.

The person that fans should be asking about Aldo’s toughness today should be Chad Mendes, who is the man Aldo TKO’d Saturday night in spectacular fashion.

Mendes told interviewers after the event, according to the Boston Herald:

"

I felt the best I’ve ever felt for a fight. I was very prepared, and he just got me. Watching a lot of his fights I knew it was going to be tough to take him down. He’s very athletic.

"

It wasn’t tough to take him down, it was impossible. Mendes came into this fight knowing that he would have to get Aldo on the ground if he wanted to win the fight, but shoot attempt after shoot attempt was stuffed with amazing sprawls that frustrated Mendes and altered his game plan.

That’s the power Aldo has. When a fighter is as smart as Jose is, that person knows his opponents' game plan and works to stop to it. Judging from Aldo’s takedown defense, it’s been a key focus during the preparation for Saturday’s fight.

UFC 142 was just another in the long line of stylistic changes Aldo has made from fight-to-fight to counteract the strengths of his opponents. While many champions will stick to their same game plan for every fighter, the greatest in the world will change their style and mentality for each opponent they square off with.

Aldo may be the greatest all-around MMA fighter in the sport right now and there isn’t much more competition worth fighting left. Despite the lack of competition, I don’t see Aldo stepping down anytime soon.

At least not while he is holding gold.

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