A prime Aldo beats Max 10 out of 10 times in a three round match. Five rounders would be where it would be interesting. Aldo never fought five rounds until he came to UFC. The first five rounder in the UFC that he had, he gassed bad, and was in some trouble on the ground. Hard to believe that Holloway, who is much more capable than Hominik, wouldn't have stopped Aldo, if in that same situation.
That was a disgusting late stoppage in the Yan-Aldo fight. It really is alarming when a supposedly very experienced ref can make such a glaringly obviously BAD call. Fight should have been stopped a good minute earlier with Aldo just covering up face in the mat basically just waiting for the ref to stop the onslaught. Reminds me of one of Herb Deans worst moments (Herb "NOT the best in the business" Dean) when he refereed Mike Pyle kill TJ Waldburger years ago. Very similar late stoppage. Aldo can still fight at an elite level BUT he has a very low output and he fades as the fight/rds go along. He did seem to have a higher output in the first couple of rds against Yan than he normally does. He just can't beat elite guys over 5 rds if he doesn't stop them early. He should retire.
Agree, he should retire. If he continues to fight, it should never be a five rounder. He's had a two round gas tank for a while now. It wasn't gonna get any better cutting down to 135.
I've been huge on Yan since he was fighting in Russia. @ForemanJab will remember my touting of him 3-4 years ago before most people even knew who he really was. Yan isn't always the fastest starter, sometimes fights to the level of his opponent but there's a clinical type of approach to his style that just isn't present in most MMA fighters. Once he has his opponent figured out it's always a wrap.
