Alexander Volkanovski picked up the biggest win of his career over a gun-shy Jose Aldo in Brazil at UFC 237 on Saturday night.
Jose Aldo is one of the greatest fighters of this era, if not all time. He enters UFC 237 having publicly acknowledged that his career is coming to an end, with plans to fight just once more after tonight’s contest. Aldo became the WEC featherweight champion in 2009 and was promoted to UFC featherweight champion in 2011 after the WEC was absorbed. In total, with both promotions considered, the Brazilian defended his title nine times before falling to Conor McGregor. After a pair of losses to Max Holloway in 2017, Aldo returned to form with brilliant knockouts against Jeremy Stephens and Renato Moicano.
Alexander Volkanovski is a tank of a man at 145 pounds, as the former professional rugby player used to weigh in north of 200 pounds. After losing for the first time in 2013, Volkanovski has won 16 straight contests, with the last six taking place in the Octagon. Most recently, the Australian defeated former featherweight title challenger Chad Mendes.
Round one was a good opening round for Alexander Volkanovski, who landed a lot of inside leg kicks on the Brazilian. Aldo didn’t throw much outside of some very well placed body punches and hooks to the head. A pumped up Volkanovski screamed in triumpth after the round; he knew he had a good start and was up after the first five minutes. However, Aldo was far from out of the fight.
In the second round the pace picked up for both fighters, however Volkanovski wasn’t going anywhere. Jose Aldo turned it up however Volkanovski still landed the better shots and was the more efficient of the two through the second frame. Aldo never really pushed the fight and was absolutely down two rounds going into the final five minutes of the affair. Going into the third round, Aldo’s coaches pleaded with him to be more active and possibly even get a finish.
However, that finish would never come. Volkanovski would use his wrestling to control in round three. He was able to pin Aldo to the cage and land some knees, doing enough as to not get separated or give Aldo a chance to separate and land any shots. Overall a dominating third round for Alexander Volkanovski, as he took the round, and took the fight as well.
Incredible performance, but also a very disappointing one by Jose Aldo. This is his first loss in a three round fight in almost 14 years.
Alexander Volkanovski def. Jose Aldo by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
