Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Brazilian Fighters

2. Jose Aldo

Aldo, who was No. 1 on Sherdog's list of top 10 featherweights and the fourth greatest fighter pound-for-pound, is the runner-up on this one, though he did get three first-place votes as well. Unsurprisingly, one of those was mine, as I also voted Aldo the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in MMA history on that earlier list, ahead of Georges St. Pierre, Jon Jones and everyone else. His career is truly unprecedented and might never be matched again. In terms of ability, he was an all-time great striker who could completely nullify even the best opponent grappling, while also being a very good wrestler with fantastic BJJ himself. He was ahead of his time with his striking style and how well he blended his legendary leg and body kicks with outstanding boxing. From his debut in 2004 to December 2015, Aldo went 25-1, with a 2005 loss to Luciano Azevedo the lone blemish. That included an astonishing 15-0 mark against elite competition in World Extreme Cagefighting and UFC, and an eye-popping nine straight title defenses. His legendary wins include a stoppage of Shooto legend Alexandra Franca Nogueira, an eight-second destruction of Cub Swanson, a knockout of Mike Thomas Brown to claim the WEC featherweight throne, a one-sided beating of fellow legend Urijah Faber, a knockout of Manny Gamburyan, dominant decisions over Mark Hominick and Kenny Florian, badly beating recent UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar who had been robbed of the 155-pound belt just one fight earlier, a beating of Ricardo Lamas, a late stoppage of Chan Sung Jung and two wins over the ultra-talented Chad Mendes, one by a famous first-round knockout, and the second by decision in one of the greatest fights ever. None of those fights were even close, so far ahead of his competition was Aldo.

Eventually, fighting fellow legends yielded losses. Aldo was caught early by Conor McGregor and, after beating Edgar again, was knocked out twice by Max Holloway. Aldo showed he was far from done, though, recording knockouts of Jeremy Stephens and Renato Carneiro before dropping another decision to an all-time legend in Alexander Volkanovski. Then, at 33 years old, with 33 fights on his odometer, a time when even the greatest of featherweights and lightweights are badly washed-up, Aldo made the decision to go down to 135 pounds, an even faster and arguably more talented weight class. It seemed like suicide, but Aldo once again showed why he is possibly the greatest ever, establishing himself as a Top 5 bantamweight, including fantastic victories over Marlon Vera, Pedro Munhoz and Rob Font. He finally decided to call it a career in 2022 after losing a decision to Merab Dvalishvili. Aldo's 15-0 run at 145 pounds in the WEC and UFC is perhaps the sport's greatest streak when considering his opponents and the nature of his dominant victories.

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