This Saturday night (October 25, 2014) celebrated UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo will fight for his seventh straight title defense against No. 1 contender Chad Mendes in the main event of UFC 179 from the Ginásio do Maracanãzinho in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The bout is a rematch of their first encounter at UFC 142 in January 2012, where Aldo knocked out Mendes with an incredible spinning knee as the clock ticked down to the very last second of the first round.
Mendes has since won five consecutive fights to earn his rematch, but Aldo would tell you that they weren’t exactly over the best of competition. However, there’s been a ton of criticism surrounding Aldo in recent months, and a lot of it could be at least somewhat true.
Brazilian MMA champions have been losing their titles at an alarming pace recently; in fact, Aldo is the only countryman who still has his belt. It isn’t fair to say that a dominant champion like Aldo will lose his belt simply because of that trend, but there could be a developing pattern as to why Brazilian champions have lost their edge.
And that could include Aldo, who has a veritable murderer’s row of title contenders to square off with. He might not even make it to them, however. Read on to find out five reasons why Aldo will be the last Brazilian champion to fall this weekend.
