Is Aldo overlooked in P4P discussion?
“These guys are all so good. You see one of them do something that blows your f@$%ing mind and you think, ‘OK, who else can do that? He’s the best.'”
With back to back losses by Anderson Silva, and George St-Pierre relinquishing his title, the very unofficial, maybe stupid, and ultimately meaningless title of Pound for Pound best fighter in mixed martial arts is in dispute.
The current list of champions contains a number of P4P contenders:
UFC Heavyweight : Cain Velasquez
UFC Light Heavyweight: Jon Jones
UFC Middleweight: Chris Weidman
UFC Welterweight: Winner of Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler at UFC 171.
UFC Lightweight: Anthony Pettis
UFC Featherweight: José Aldo
UFC Bantamweight: Renan Barão
UFC Women’s Bantamweight: Ronda Rousey
UFC Flyweight: Demetrious Johnson
My sensei
In the past few weeks, UFC President Dana White has offered two potential candidates for the P4P best fighter in MMA.
At one point, White said it was ‘probably’ Renan Barao, who has not lost since his very first fight in 2005, if Barao beats a surging Urijah Faber on Saturday night.
However, last week, White said [If Weidman beats Belfort] he’s the best. He’s #1. How is he not #1 pound-for-pound in the world if he beats Vitor Belfort? It’s impossible not to call him the No. 1 pound-for-pound guy.
So according to White’s calculations, if Barao beats Faber on Feb 1, he is ‘probably’ the P4P champ until either May 24 (Memorial Day Weekend) or July 5 (Fourth of July Weekend) when if Weidman beats Belfort, “The All American” is the P4P champ and it is ‘impossible’ to disagree.
However, often overlooked in the discussion is Jose Aldo.
Jose Aldo hasn’t lost in more than eight years. The list of former No. 1 contenders who have been beaten – destroyed – by Aldo is lengthy.
Given his 23-1 record, given his 16-fight winning streak, given his eight-plus-year unbeaten streak, shouldn’t you be talking about Aldo as the best in the world, White was asked.
“Well, here is the thing,” White said. “These guys are all so good. You see one of them do something that blows your f—ing mind and you think, ‘OK, who else can do that? He’s the best.’ And then in the next show, another guy does something that blows your mind again.
“Of course Aldo is there. Of course he is. He’s an incredible fighter.”
“There are four, five, maybe six guys you could talk about who deserve to be in that conversation, and Aldo is one of those guys.”
“I’m not saying this is going to happen, and he’ll have to want it, but you can imagine if he went up to 155 and fought Pettis? That would be f—ing insane.
“Those guys do things that just blow you away. A fight between them? Oh my God, how sick would that be?”
Aldo doesn’t speak English, and he’s as low-key as it gets. He doesn’t like to boast and he never makes threats.
Asked about the opinions – including that of his boss – regarding the identity of best fighter in the world, Aldo essentially snorts.
“I don’t care,” he says. “All I care about is winning my fight, our team having a great night and then going home.”
So what do you think UG? Dana has a HOLY F@$%ING $#!* definition of P4P – what ever fighter executes the most mind boggling action is the champ. What is your definition, and who is the best?
