UFC 136 Results: Just How Good Can Jose Aldo Become?

Jose Aldo defended his title for the fourth time last night at UFC 136, and cemented his status as one of the best 145-lb fighters of all time.

It wasn’t as impressive as his wins over Mark Hominick and Urijah Faber, but Aldo did enough to get the nod over consistent title challenger and UFC veteran Kenny Florian.

Aldo has had no problems with anyone Zuffa has put in front of him since he entered the WEC back in June of 2008, as he’s gone on an Anderson Silva-esque run in the featherweight division, winning 10 in a row against the toughest competition in the world.

The difference between Aldo and Silva is that, while Anderson started his UFC run at age 32, Aldo is still only 25 years old.

This kind of dominance at such a young age is unprecedented in MMA, and with world class training partners and coaches, Aldo is only going to get better.

Aldo already has world class stand-up, BJJ, and take-down defense, so it may seem like he has little room for improvement, but there are a few areas that he can focus on to become an all-time great.

The first is obviously his cardio. It didn’t look as bad against Florian last night, but he also didn’t seem to exhaust very much energy going for the finish like he usually does.

It will be interesting to see how much longer Aldo can stay at 145 lbs, since it is obviously becoming a problem to cut the weight and keep his cardio in check.

Another thing that Aldo needs to improve is his finishing ability on the mat.

We’ve all seen him go out and destroy people with flying knees, but he had Florian mounted at least twice during their fight, and did little to no offense.

If he can start to do some damage when he gets a dominant position on the ground, it gives his opponents one more thing to worry about and causes them to hesitate going to the ground.

If Aldo just makes those two small tweaks to his game, he will eventually surpass Anderson Silva as the greatest fighter of all time. He has more natural ability than 99 percent of the fighters out there, and with his constantly improving game, it wouldn’t be surprising if his current 13-fight win streak turns into 25 over the next four to five years.