Aging Legend Jose Aldo Is a Dangerous Steppingstone to UFC Stardom

I will never forget the first time I saw Jose Aldo fight another man. It was WEC 44 in Las Vegas, when Aldo made the previously unbeatable Mike Brown look hapless and mediocre, as though he did not belong in the same sport.

However, maybe you can't remember the first time you saw him fight. Maybe you can't recall the precise time you first became aware of the shy death-dealer from Brazil.

Even if that's the case, the first thing that might pop into your brain when I say Jose Aldo is that gravity-defying, clearly impossible double flying knee knockout he delivered to Cub Swanson.

That's usually the first memory associated with Aldo, because for starters, it was absolutely ridiculous, and it is also a constant in UFC highlight reels on nearly every broadcast despite taking place over a decade ago. 

You might also remember when Aldo kicked Urijah Faber's legs so hard they literally turned black for weeks after. Not purple. Not blue. Not red. Black.

Like Brown, Faber was once considered unbeatable, and then Faber had to sit on his couch for two weeks and consider that maybe he was human, after all. 

Aldo, though, didn't seem human. Read the stories told by the men who have been unfortunate enough to face him when he was in his prime.

Listen to what Brown had to say about the first time he fought Aldo: 

"But, honestly, my confidence was so high. I thought I was going to walk through him. That was just my mindset at the time. I hadn't lost in a while and I was beating guys easily. There was so much hype behind Urijah. Then it was Leonard Garcia, who had just knocked out Jens, knocked out (Hiroyuki) Takaya. That fight was really easy. So I was thinking, yeah, this is just another one of these guys. Everybody's tough. I didn't see how special he was at the time. But man, I felt it when I was in the cage."

But then Conor McGregor came along and got under Aldo's skin, and something changed. McGregor caused him to shift from predator to avenger.

Aldo used to avoid looking at his opponents in the eye, even in the midst of a fight, because he was analyzing them. Figuring them out. And he figured them out as well as anyone. He'd figure out your habits, your motions and your tells, and then he would counterstrike so perfectly it redefined the notion of what a counterstriker in mixed martial arts could be.

But then McGregor insulted him frequently with bigoted and racist lines (NSFW video) about his heritage, his home country and his legacy, and that's when something changed in Aldo's brain.

When they fought, Aldo charged across the ring without any concern for safety, which is something he had never done in his career. He rushed Swanson, sure, but only because he knew what Swanson was going to do, and he knew rushing out and kneeing Swanson twice in one leap would do the trick. It did. 

But against McGregor, Aldo lost all control. And then he lost consciousness. It was just 13 seconds, but it seemed like 13 seconds was all it took to turn Aldo from the most fearsome man in mixed martial arts to a steppingstone. He was now a ladder used by UFC matchmakers to determine if someone was ready to ascend to the next level. 

He beat Frankie Edgar in his next fight, but it wasn't the same Aldo. The killer was gone, and he'd been replaced by someone content to ride out a decision win.

Then, Max Holloway knocked him out and made Aldo look as though he did not belong in the Octagon with him, the same way Aldo did to others before McGregor changed him. Holloway then did it again, and by the end of that particular beating, you were hoping not just for the fight to come to a merciful end, but also for Aldo's career to come to a merciful end. 

We didn't want to see Aldo become a shell of himself, a man so determined he can reattain glory that he's unable to see how much damage he's doing to his brain. We wanted him to walk away. 

I wanted him to walk away. 

But something happened last year, and I don't know exactly what it was. But I do know that the old Jose Aldo returned for a night and beat the brakes off Jeremy Stephens. The UFC wanted to use Aldo to help Stephens get to that next level, and instead, Aldo sent him crashing back to earth.

In February, the UFC again tried to get another contender to the next level. This time it was Renato Moicano, and Aldo also knocked him out 44 seconds into the second round.

On Saturday, they're again trying to use Aldo as a steppingstone, matching him up with human fire hydrant and top prospect Alexander Volkanovski.

This is the next-to-last fight of Aldo's career, allegedly, and you know the UFC wants to create another featherweight contender in Volkanovski.

In fight promoting, the star who is retiring beating a potential championship fighter is not an optimal outcome. But there is a good chance that's exactly what we will see come Saturday night. 

Buda Mendes/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images

Normally, this is where we'd ask if Aldo is back—except, of course, he is back. McGregor sent him to some kind of mental wasteland, and he was mired there for a while, still seething from the disrespect and how it all ended for him.

Even if he hadn't been in that state, he might not have beaten Holloway, because Holloway just appears to be the one fighter who will always have Aldo's number. Every fighter has that opponent. They could fight each other 10,000 times and the outcome will almost always be the same. 

But this is still Jose Aldo. Not the same Jose Aldo, of course. He is a bit slower, but he is also a bit smarter, and he's aware of what he can do and what he cannot do. That he is retiring at 32 years old, perhaps to pursue a career in boxing, is a sign of just how analytical and different he is and has always been. Before he does that, though, he has a new prospect to flatten, and then one final fight. 

In a perfect world, that retirement fight would be against McGregor, and Aldo would not let McGregor anger him and would just be the same fighter who has beaten so many men in ways that stupefy and astound.

That would be the perfect retirement. Making things right against McGregor, and making millions to do it. Showing the world that it wasn't McGregor who beat him. He beat himself. And that he was never a steppingstone for anybody, but instead one of the greatest fighters to have ever lived.