UFC 142: Why Jose Aldo is Already the Greatest Featherweight

Following his first-round knockout of Chad Mendes at UFC 142, 145-pound kingpin Jose Aldo proved beyond a doubt why he’s in fact the greatest featherweight to have ever graced the MMA stage.

In Mendes, he was up against a former NCAA Division-I standout and arguably the division's best wrestler.

That, however, was of little significance as he stuffed Mendes’s takedown attempts time and again, eventually creating an opening to unleash a devastating knockout knee to the head—two hammer fists later it was over—4:59 of Round 1.

That was Aldo’s third successful UFC title defense since the acquisition of the WEC by the Zuffa-based promotion.

It was also Mendes’s first defeat in 12 outings.

Prior to the matchup, his last performance against Mark Hominick left a lot to be desired as the Canadian was able to take him down almost at will and dictate the fight.

This time, however, was much different, as the 25-year-old Brazilian displayed impressive takedown defense and utilized his supreme striking abilities to their fullest potential.

At present, “Scarface” has locked horns with the best the featherweight division has had to offer and upended each and every one of them—from the WEC straight to the gates of the UFC.

In his first title shot he captured the World Extreme Championship featherweight crown by a technical knockout of Mike Brown.

He then went on to defend the belt against former WEC titlist Urijah Faber who had lost twice to the aforementioned Brown and finally Manvel Gamburyan.

At UFC 136 he decisively defeated top-10 featherweight Kenny Florian.

So far the Black House trained fighter has made a total of five defenses in both the UFC and the WEC.

With that said, there are several interesting fights to be made if Aldo decides to continue plying his trade in the featherweight assemblage—there’s former Shooto and Sengoku champion Hatsu Hioki as well as Erik Koch and Dustin Poirer who both possess knockout power with good submission skills to boot.

The likes of Chan Sung Jung of the famed twister submission and Diego Nunes could also be in the mix.

Still, with all their attributes, I doubt any of the above will unseat Aldo from his featherweight throne.

Scarface (21-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) has that championship mentality, the striking prowess, notable takedown defense, but most importantly, save for the one blip on his record which came early on (at lightweight) in his career , has upended all that have stood in his way.

Jose Aldo, currently riding a 13-winning streak, is already the greatest 145-1b in MMA history.

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