Injured champ Aldo still The Man
UFC 189: Interim title doesn’t diminish his place atop featherweight class he’s ruled since late 2009
Even though he won’t be stepping into the Octagon on Saturday night, featherweight champion Jose Aldo is still one of the most intriguing figures attached to UFC 189.
For the last six months, the Brazilian champion has been paired with Irish challenger Conor McGregor, with everyone in the MMA world counting down to the day the two rivals lock eyes across the cage and start slinging leather at each other with the UFC featherweight strap hanging in the balance.
Their 12-day, 10-city World Media Tour ratcheted up the intensity between the two would-be combatants, but just as June was set to turn to July and their highly anticipated showdown drew closer, Aldo suffered a fractured rib in training. After a week of “would-he-or-won’t-he” speculation, the 28-year-old titleholder officially withdrew from the contest.
McGregor remains on the card, headlining this weekend’s impressive pay-per-view event at the MGM Grand Garden Arena opposite Chad Mendes. The winner will walk away as the interim featherweight champion, but despite McGregor’s belief that there should be no interim tag affixed to Saturday’s title, “The Ric Flair Principle” plays here.
To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man (WOOO!) and in the 145-pound ranks, Jose Aldo is The Man. That’s what makes the UFC’s decision to introduce an interim title somewhat confusing.
Although he’s been forced out of four previous matchups and this latest injury withdrawal scuttles a massive promotional undertaking, the quiet champion from Manaus has successfully defended the title he won at WEC44 in November 2009 nine times, which is on par with how frequently other championship belts have been defended during that time.
It’s worth noting that Aldo is the only champion to retain his title during that entire time. Frequent turnover at the top of a division makes running title fights into the cage a little easier than when you have a dominant champion turning back the best of the best each and every time they step into the cage.
The Brazilian striking specialist is the only man to ever wear UFC gold in the featherweight division, which is something the organization should celebrate and seek to preserve, but instead, it feels like the man that currently sits atop the promotion’s pound-for-pound rankings is being pushed aside in favour of a boisterous Irish challenger with a flare for self-promotion.
McGregor is a lightning rod and a brilliant talent, but hastily trying to put a belt around his waist without him having to go through the reigning, defending, undisputed champion feels like a misstep and a slight against Aldo.
McGregor could be everything he claims to be and more, but beating Mendes isn’t necessarily going to prove it. As great as the Team Alpha Male standout is, he’s gone 0-for-2 when trying to wrestle the featherweight belt away from the champion, which mean seven if the burgeoning superstar beats Mendes on Saturday, he’ll still need to prove himself against the king of the division.
That makes Aldo the most intriguing featherweight of the weekend, even if he won’t set foot in the Octagon.
E. Spencer Kyte is the author of Keyboard Kimura (theprovince.com/ mmablog), the MMA blog of The Province. He’ll be in Las Vegas all week covering UFC 189, so check out Keyboard Kimura and follow him on Twitter and Instagram (@spencerkyte) for complete coverage.