At UFC 245, former featherweight king Jose Aldo took on Marlon Moraes and lost via split decision. Yet, many feel he deserved the victory. Supposedly, current bantamweight champ Henry Cejudo called up Dana White and said he wanted to face the legend as his first title defense anyway.
Dana and some of the MMA community seem to agree. Aldo is a long-reigning former champ in a higher weight division and Cejudo just defeated Moraes to get the title. That fight, which the fans would love, makes some sense. But no, Aldo doesn’t really deserve it. Still, it’s difficult to say who else specifically the shot should go to.
Three major fights between young contenders and old champions in the bantamweight division were scheduled that could have title picture implications. The aforementioned Marlon Moraes against Jose Aldo, Petr Yan fighting Urijah Faber on the same card, and Cory Sandhagen versus Frankie Edgar.
For Aldo and Moraes, the three-round bout was a close back-and-forth. The first was arguably Marlon’s best, as he came forward throwing hard strikes but, as has happened before, he burned himself out quite easily. The same thing happened against Cejudo: a strong dominant first round followed by much less offensive output from that point forward.
In rounds two and three, Aldo mostly moved forward while Moraes moved away and countered, several times stepping in with a nice overhand. Neither one threw a lot of strikes, and unlike what Alexander Volkanovski did versus Max Holloway, Aldo didn’t throw many leg kicks either.
With a limited amount of blows or damage for both, the fight could have gone either way. People are praising Aldo for dropping down, taking on a top contender, and holding his own. But I think Cejudo wants Jose cause he sees an easy fight. An aging legend with little stamina and limited output.
I wouldn’t give the title shot to Aldo off of a loss. Then again, I wouldn’t give a title shot to Yoel Romero off of back to back losses. So maybe it’ll still happen. Of course, if not Jose, then who?
Petr Yan defeated Urijah Faber at UFC 245 as well. With Faber also being an older legendary fighter in the division, there was some already saying that the 40-year-old, after defeating 15-1 Ricky Simon by knockout, should have gotten the nod right then and there.
So we see the fans have a bias for letting old veterans get one last chance at gold. But Yan defeated him in spectacular fashion. With a second-round head-kick KO. Now the 6-0 in the UFC, 14-1 overall, Petr Yan looks like an obvious candidate for Cejudo. But he definitely doesn’t have the name recognition of Aldo.
Yan got into it backstage with returning ex-champion Cody Garbrandt. Perhaps that’s the fight to make next. Garbrandt has already said as much. After facing Rafael Assuncao, he wants Yan. Cody is currently on a three-fight losing streak. If he loses again, he may well be out of the organization. However, if he wins, Petr would be a good opponent. But Yan has already stated he isn’t interested. He wants Cejudo instead.
Somewhere on the docket in the near future was supposed to be 5-0 in the UFC Cory Sandhagen squaring off with Frankie Edgar. Yet another ex-champion also dropping down in weight. Now with Frankie instead filling in at UFC Fight Night 166, it leaves Sandhagen without an opponent. A victory against Edgar possibly could have gotten Sandhagen the title shot. So Cory gets screwed twice. Now he not only doesn’t have an opponent, he’s lost his clear path to the title.
Aljamain Sterling is on a three-fight win streak as well. And he makes sense to face Cejudo. But again is Sterling the type of guy fans are going to go crazy for, clamoring to see fight for the title? Probably not. But that would be a fun match. And one I’d certainly prefer.
Petr Yan, Cory Sandhagen, and Aljamain Sterling all deserve the title fight more. But when it comes to fame, name recognition, and great careers, none of these young challengers can match Jose Aldo.
So while Aldo getting the championship bout isn’t really warranted, if we treat that last contest like a “victory” for Jose, it can make a bit more sense. After all, officially Jon Jones lost to Matt Hamill via disqualification because of illegal elbow strikes, but no one has ever acted like he has a loss on his record.
Everyone just pretend like Jose Aldo won the split decision. The former featherweight champion dropped down to 135 and beat title challenger Marlon Moraes, the last man to face Henry Cejudo for the title. That way Aldo getting another chance at gold, in this new division, makes sense. And I’d even be behind it.
The problem with that is I actually had Moraes winning the fight. Oh, and so did the judges.
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