#2 Jose Aldo Analysis
Looking at Aldo in the octagon is like looking at a car with a German made engine. It isn’t flashy but it’s efficient and effective. In his last few performances, Aldo has streamlined his striking offence. His incorporation of feints along with his athleticism and power make his simplistic style very dangerous. Aldo relies on his jab, straight and left hook to start off his combinations which more often than not culminate with a leg kick.
Aldo uses his jab to prevent fighters getting too close. However against McGregor, don’t expect to see too much of it. The closer he can get to Conor, the better. Aldo has a reputation of mercilessly punishing his opponents lead leg with vicious leg kicks. All but one of them however were southpaws like Conor. When he fought the exception, Kenny Florian, Aldo was able to adapt his set up strikes in order to remain effective with his leg kicks.
Aldo is an efficient counter striker. He will rarely lead, forcing opponents to reach for him so he can land his shots with relative ease. While most people will look at Aldo’s leg kicks as his primary weapon against Conor, the Brazilian’s trump cards are his knees. Aldo is capable of landing shots with his knees in the clinch. He stopped Chad Mendes with a knee in their first meeting and knee attacks have become a bigger feature in his arsenal ever since. If Aldo is successful at closing distance, the knee to the body and the head could be the difference maker.
While he is known primarily for his striking, Aldo is also a decent wrestler. He only ever turns to his wrestling when he is tired like in his fights against Mark Hominick and the Korean Zombie. After the success Chad Mendes had against Conor with wrestling, Aldo could implement much of the same.
If the knees are Aldo’s trump card then Jiu Jitsu is his hidden weapon. He first entered MMA as a grappler and is a very capable BJJ black belt. He has however not needed to rely on it thus far in his illustrious career but he could pull it out of the hat against a lesser grappler like Conor.
There is a question of ring rust with Aldo. He has not fought in 15 months and ordinarily that would be a hindrance for a fighter. However given that he has had more than a year now to prepare for McGregor and has had two back to back camps training for this fight negate the ring rust argument. The second camp in the build up to the fight this Sunday was essentially an opportunity to correct everything that went wrong in the first camp. Pulling out of the fight actually worked in Aldo’s favour as he has had more time to prepare for a fight against the same man, whereas his opponent has had other things on his plate.
Watch Jose Aldo beat the Korean Zombie in the video below :-
