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This weekend marked the end of an era of sorts for the UFC. Legendary former featherweight champion Jose Aldo announced his retirement from MMA after nearly two decades of action.
Jose Aldo was part of the UFC from 2011 to 2022. During that period, he not only produced a legendary title reign, but he also featured in some truly memorable moments.
The Brazilian will undoubtedly be missed by the fans. Regardless, it’s arguable that he’s made the right call to walk away at the age of 36 before suffering too much damage.
In light of his retirement, here are Jose Aldo’s five most memorable moments inside and outside the UFC.
#5. Headlining the first WEC pay-per-view – Jose Aldo vs. Urijah Faber (2010)
While it seems crazy to imagine now, back in 2010 the UFC was only home to five different weight classes, ranging from heavyweight down to lightweight. The promotion’s parent company, Zuffa, did promote the bantamweight and featherweight divisions, but they were both part of sister promotion WEC.
The smaller fighters of the WEC took time to catch on with fans. By 2010, the likes of Urijah Faber, Miguel Torres and, of course, Jose Aldo had become well-known across the world. The big question, though, was whether they could draw on pay-per-view like their larger counterparts.
Zuffa decided to find out in April 2010, when they put WEC 48 on pay-per-view, headlining the event with a featherweight title bout between champion Aldo and challenger Faber.
Aldo, who was riding an unbeaten streak of nine fights dating back to 2005, came in as the favorite. However, he was also stepping into hostile territory, as the event was being held in Sacramento, California – Faber’s back yard.
That didn’t matter to the Brazilian, though. After walking to the cage to the sounds of Jay Z’s Run This Town, he proceeded to dissect ‘The California Kid’ over the course of five rounds. Aldo broke Faber down with his brutal leg kicks, knocked him down a couple of times, and essentially did everything but score a stoppage.
When the fight was over, it was painfully clear that Aldo was not only the best fighter in the world at 145lbs, but the biggest star in the division, too. When it emerged that the pay-per-view had drawn 175k buys, a remarkable number for a non-UFC event, it didn’t take long for the lighter weight classes to be brought over to the big show.
#4. Reclaiming UFC gold – Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar (2016)
By the end of 2015, Jose Aldo had held the UFC featherweight title for over four years, making a total of seven successful defenses. More to the point, he was unbeaten for a stretch of 18 bouts dating back over a decade.
It took Conor McGregor just 13 seconds to erase all that, as he knocked the Brazilian out with one punch, seemingly ending an era in the process.
Nobody could’ve blamed Aldo for walking away from the UFC altogether following the embarrassing loss. However, just seven months later, he returned in a bout for the interim featherweight title following McGregor’s move up to 155lbs.
The Brazilian faced Frankie Edgar, a man who’d not only given him a tough test in 2013, but who was also on the form of his life, having won five bouts in a row after suffering that defeat.
If fans expected Aldo to have a post-McGregor hangover, though, they were proven very wrong. ‘Junior’ picked Edgar apart in even more impressive fashion than he’d done the first time around, hammering him with his leg kicks and punches while barely letting ‘The Answer’ lay a glove on him.
The victory meant that Aldo once again held gold inside the octagon. The sight of him with a UFC title wrapped around his waist simply seemed right. Later, he would be promoted to undisputed champion, beginning his second reign outright.
#3. Winning the WEC title – Jose Aldo vs. Mike Brown (2009)
When Jose Aldo debuted in the WEC in mid-2008, many fans saw him as a sacrificial victim to fellow debutant Alexandre Franca Nogueira, who was widely recognized as one of the best 145lbers of all time.
After Aldo destroyed ‘Pequeno’, finishing him via TKO, it was hard not to view him as the division’s best prospect. Sure enough, ‘Junior’ then reeled off a further four wins in the WEC cage, capping his run off with a ridiculous flying knee KO of veteran Cub Swanson.
That win put the Brazilian in line for a shot at reigning WEC champ Mike Brown, who most fans expected would give ‘Junior’ a much trickier test. After all, Brown had dispatched Urijah Faber twice, as well as beating the likes of Leonard Garcia and Jeff Curran.
Incredibly, though, that wasn’t the case at all. In a true changing of the guard, Aldo thoroughly dominated his more experienced foe, beating him up in all areas before putting him away with ground-and-pound – Brown’s own favored weapon – in the second round.
The victory made Aldo the world’s top featherweight, gave him his first major title in MMA, and put him on the path that eventually lead to UFC stardom.
#2. Arriving in the UFC with a bang – Jose Aldo vs. Mark Hominick (2011)
When the WEC’s roster was absorbed into the UFC at the end of 2010, Jose Aldo, as the reigning 145lbs champion, was handed the UFC featherweight title by default. His octagon debut was supposed to come in January 2011 in a defense against top contender Josh Grispi.
When an injury delayed that debut, though, the promotion switched tack. Instead of fighting Grispi, Aldo’s first title defense came against Canada’s Mark Hominick. More importantly, the fight was announced to be taking place in Hominick’s hometown of Toronto, Ontario.
Suddenly, rather than walking in as a conquering hero, Aldo instead found himself debuting against a home favorite in hostile territory, just as he’d done in his bout with Urijah Faber a year prior.
What followed was a truly legendary clash that really ought to be remembered more fondly by UFC fans. If anything, it could be seen as the promotion’s version of Rocky, with Aldo playing the role of Apollo Creed.
Essentially, the Brazilian took the fight to Hominick across the first four rounds, knocking him down on multiple occasions and leaving him with a freakish hematoma over his eye that made him look like an alien.
‘The Machine’ did fight back impressively in the fifth round, and ended up punishing Aldo with ground-and-pound, particularly to the body. However, when the fight ended, there was no doubt of the result.
Aldo had retained his title in entertaining fashion, and while Hominick left with plenty of respect, the beginning of a new era in the UFC had begun.
#1. Rivalry with Mendes – Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes (2012 and 2014)
While Jose Aldo’s rivalry with Conor McGregor became a bitter, personal feud, it also only led to one fight, with McGregor quickly moving on after downing the Brazilian.
In reality, Aldo’s greatest rival in the UFC was Chad Mendes. ‘Money’ essentially spent his entire career chasing the Brazilian, only to come up short on two occasions. One of these fights produced arguably the greatest featherweight fight in the promotion’s history.
A stellar collegiate wrestler, Mendes – like Aldo – broke through in the WEC before moving to the UFC in 2011, where he picked up two wins to move himself into title contention.
That set him up for a fight with Aldo. Unfortunately for Mendes, it meant travelling to the Brazilian’s back yard, Rio de Janeiro.
In probably his most impressive showing in the UFC, Aldo left nothing to doubt, as he largely dominated Mendes. He eventually knocked him out with a vicious knee as the first round came to an end, before sprinting into the crowd to celebrate, producing an iconic moment in the process.
The celebration turned Aldo into an absolute superstar in Brazil, but while he continued to defend his title, Mendes didn’t stew on the defeat. Instead, ‘Money’ improved his striking dramatically and reeled off another five wins – four by KO or TKO – to earn himself another shot at the champ.
Once again, the two rivals did battle in Rio. Unlike in their first bout, Aldo had to dig deep to pull out the win. He was knocked down for the first time in his UFC career and took some major shots in a back-and-forth war.
Overall, however, the Brazilian still had the edge. He decked Mendes twice in the first round. He seemed to have just about enough to outgun his foe throughout the fight, eventually claiming a unanimous decision.
The fight was widely seen as the best of 2014. While Aldo’s star didn’t quite rise much further thanks to McGregor, it remains a stone-cold classic bout that should stand as a testament to the brilliance of the Brazilian – putting him up there with Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva as an all-time great.
