The Resume of Jose Aldo Junior
José Aldo da Silva Oliveira Júnior fought his first professional fight at age 17 at EcoFight 1 on August 10th, 2004. He faced fellow Brazilian newcomer Mário Bigola, finishing him by knockout in 16 seconds. José would have four more fights within the following year and finish them all in the first round before taking his first bout outside of Brazil, facing future UFC fighter Phil Harris at UK-1: Fight Night in England. Aldo would finish Harris by doctor stoppage between the first and second round. Aldo traveled to England again only one month later, where he fought Micky Young at FX3- Battle of Britain. He defeated Young just one minute into the first round by TKO.
At 7-0 with all first-round finishes, Aldo moved up to Lightweight to fight Luta Livre black belt, Luciano Azevedo, at Jungle Fight 5. Aldo would win the first round, getting the better of Azevedo in most exchanges and stuffing all his takedown attempts. In the second round, Azevedo's size and wrestling capabilities proved too much as he scored a takedown and finished Aldo via rare-naked choke at 3:37, handing him the first loss in his career.
Aldo rebounded from the loss in his next fight, beating undefeated Thiago "Minu" Meller at Gold Fighters Championship I on 20 May 2006 by majority decision.
Aldo took a fight at Pancrase in Japan against Shoji Maruyama, where he won by unanimous decision and got the opportunity to fight under the World Extreme Cagefighting promotion. In his first five fights in WEC, he scored knockout finishes against Alexandre Franca Nogueira, Jonathan Brookins, Rolando Perez, Chris Mickle, and Cub Swanson before facing Mike Brown for the WEC Featherweight championship and again won by knockout to become WEC Featherweight champion. Aldo would win two more fights under the WEC banner against Uriah Faber and Manny Gamburyan before the UFC acquired the promotion and promoted him to UFC Featherweight champion.
In his UFC debut, Aldo faced Mark Hominick and defended his title in a Fight of the Night earning performance. Aldo would defend his title for nine consecutive years against Kenny Florian, Chad Mendes, Frankie Edgar, Chan Sung Jung, and Ricardo Lamas before suffering the second loss of his career at the hands of Conor McGregor. At one of the best UFC events to date, UFC 200, Aldo rematched Frankie Edgar for the Interim Featherweight title while Conor McGregor was away challenging Nate Diaz. After defeating Edgar and becoming the Interim champion, Aldo was promoted to undisputed champion when McGregor vacated his title after winning the Lightweight title.
Aldo's next two fights would see him lose consecutively for the first time in his career to one of the greatest Featherweights in history in Max Holloway. Immediately after, Aldo would bounce back with two knockout victories over Jeremy Stephens and Renato Moicano and earn Performance of the Night awards in both outings. Aldo's final fight at Featherweight would see him face future champion and greatest Featherweight of all-time contender, Alexander Volkanovski, where he lost by unanimous decision and chose to enter the Bantamweight division.
In his Bantamweight debut, Aldo lost a controversial split decision to Marlon Moraes that many people believe he won, including UFC president, Dana White. Dana gave Aldo a shot at the vacant Bantamweight title against Petr Yan despite the loss where Petr would win by TKO in the final round to become the undisputed champion. Aldo was 3-6 in his last nine fights and unable to secure a proper win streak since losing to McGregor, many people believed it could be the end of Aldo's career, until seemingly out of nowhere, he strung together unanimous decision wins over three Bantamweight top contenders in Marlon "Chito" Vera, Pedro Munhoz, and Rob Font.
Now on a three-fight winning streak, Aldo looks to continue piling up these Bantamweight wins to earn a shot at Bantamweight gold. Aldo has taught us to never count him out and proved that no matter what, he can hang with all the top guys. With a win over Merab Dvalishvili on the main card of UFC 278, Aldo will potentially be one fight away from facing Aljamain Sterling for the Bantamweight title.
