Aldo vs Pettis "Super Fight" Should it Happen?

Should the Champ vs Champ fight happen? Pros and Cons for both divisions

by Sam Heard @SamHeard_

By now I’m sure the news of the proposed super fight between long time featherweight champion José Aldo (24-1 MMA, 6-0 UFC) and the newly crowned lightweight king Anthony Pettis (17-2 MMA, 4-1 UFC) has filtered down to even casual fans of MMA. It’s very difficult not to get carried away with excitement at the prospect of this titanic clash – for too many years now the MMA community has clamoured for a super fight, yet the last time we saw a clash of champions was GSP vs B.J Penn II way back in 2009… However, looking past how intriguing this battle would be, there are quite a few reasons why it might not necessarily be the right time for this fight.

From Anthony Pettis’ end there are some notable obstacles.

It must be remembered that Pettis has only just won his lightweight belt and is yet to make a single defence. There is no shortage of potential contenders in the lightweight division; Gilbert Melendez, Khabib Nurmagomedov and T.J. Grant to name but a few are sniffing after the belt. Surely it would make more sense for Pettis to see off a few of these challengers before super fight discussion can begin? While Aldo has seen off all the competition the featherweight division has to offer in some style, Pettis hasn’t even fought as a UFC champion. It could raise the stakes of a future battle between Pettis and Aldo even more if Pettis gets a few wins under his belt, proving himself to be a champion worthy of a super fight.

Aside from this question over Pettis’ dominance as a champion, there is a far more obvious concern preventing the two meeting in the Octagon. Anthony Pettis is currently rehabbing a serious knee injury. A recent interview with the UFC’s doctor revealed that even expecting the champion to return by July could be an overly optimistic estimation. By committing to the super fight the UFC would be essentially side-lining both champions until Pettis makes a full recovery, putting both the featherweight and lightweight divisions on hold. Also, with heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez out until late in the year, this means the UFC would have three champions out of action and would have far less main-event-worthy fights at their disposal.

There can be no denying that of the two fighters José Aldo is the more ready for a super fight. During his time as the top dog of the UFC and WEC he has cleared out the upper-tier of the featherweight division, so in many ways a move up to lightweight is understandable. He simply needs some more competition...

However, the fate of the featherweight belt if Aldo does indeed move up to 155-lbs is problematic. When Aldo first expressed his interest in the super fight at the post-UFC 169 press conference, Dana was fairly adamant that Aldo will be forced to relinquish his hold of the Featherweight belt, opening the vacant championship position up to a battle between the two top contenders (the same scenario scheduled to take place for the Welterweight championship at UFC 171).

While this battle for the vacant belt – most likely between Chad Mendes and Cub Swanson – would be a killer fight, viewers would be left with a strange aftertaste. The new featherweight champion wouldn’t be the ‘real’ champion. Aldo would still be the champion, at least in the eyes of the people. This new guy would be the fighter who was babysitting Aldo’s belt while he attempted to conquer the lightweight division. There is also every chance Aldo won’t even be willing to give up his belt – it would be a huge gamble to drop one championship belt for the opportunity to potentially gain another. Becoming the champion of another division would certainly put Aldo right into the GOAT discussion though.

The fight seemed to be arranged so easily at the press conference. Dana White simply announced “sounds like we got a fight”, though it is clear that there is a lot more arranging to do before a fight of this scale can be set in stone. Aldo and Pettis were supposed to meet at UFC 163 and it seems pretty obvious their paths are destined to cross at some point – will this happen in 2014? Who knows. When it does happen, expect it to be an incredible battle though.

Kingdom MMA Awards 2013: Submission of the Year

Kingdom MMA Submission of the Year Award 2013: Anthony Pettis
By chris Houten - @mrhouts

2013 has been a year full of great submissions. From Rose Namajunas submission of Kathina Catron at Invicta 5 to Takuya Eizumi submission of Teppei Masuda at Pancrase 250, fans have been left in the kind of awe that makes you show up at the local BJJ academy scratching for your first lesson, in a way only a drug addict would. 

With so many great submission in 2013 including the aforementioned, the staff at Kingdom MMA found it difficult to agree on winner of submission of the year with several championing Rose Namajunas’ flying armbar, and Eizumi getting a well deserved vote for his hip toss reversal into belly down arm bar. In the end though one man came out on top – Anthony Pettis for his UFC 164 submission victory over Benson Henderson, which earned him the UFC lightweight title.

Strange choice you may say, when you compare a regular old armbar which happens week in week at many events around the world, to a flying armbar, but in the end it was the magnitude of the victory, and the quality of his opponent which earned Pettis sub of the year.

Going into the fight with Pettis, the lightweight champion Benson Henderson was on a 7 fight win streak and was looking pretty cosy at the top of the lightweight division. What makes Pettis submission of Henderson even more impressive is the fact that Bendo has just earned his BJJ blackbelt a few months before, and had been competing and winning in high level BJJ tournaments for most of the summer.

As one of the best strikers in all of MMA, Pettis was given the advantage standing by fans and pundits a like; its fairly safe to say that not many people would have backed a Pettis submission at the bookies, even with Pettis’ notoriously active guard. And that’s what makes Pettis' victory even more impressive, he tapped out one of the finest lightweights of all time with ease, a feat that caused absolute hysteria in Pettis’ home town where the fight took place. Sometime its not the just the method of victory that makes a finish great it’s the complete packagage, and this one had it all.

By tapping out Henderson, Pettis becomes only the second man in 22 fights to submit Benson Henderson, earning himself the UFC Lightweight title, and Kingdom MMA’s 2013 submission of the year award – Pettis we salute you.

Was 2013 The Greatest Year Ever for MMA?

Guest Blogger Emma McHale discusses if 2013 was the greatest year ever for MMA?
by Emma McHale of Sports Direct
Emma McHale trained as a web journalist at the University of Sheffield, has a passion for MMA and currently works at SportsDirect.com.  

MMA has started to become a mainstream sport recently and it is the worlds fastest growing sport. As 2013 comes to a close, we are going to look back at the top MMA moments of 2013 to see if 2013 really was the greatest year of MMA.
 
This has been one of the first years that young talented MMA fighters have completed dedicated training to become simply a MMA fighter. Previous MMA fighters started by learning a specific martial art such as Jiu Jitsu and then become a MMA fighter. This results in more interesting and tougher MMA fights. For example welterweight contender Rory MacDonald has only ever trained as a full mixed martial artist. 

This year celebrated the 20th anniversary of UFC with the UFC 167 event. This year also marked another key event with the introduction of the first women’s division and the first fight in the UFC between rivals Ronda Roussey and Liz Carmouche. 

There have been some of the best MMA fights this year ranging from Silva versus Weidman to Grice versus Bermudez. The year has been highlighted by top knockouts from Weidman, superb submissions from Pettis and controversial judging decisions after the St-Pierre versus Hendricks fight. 

Considered to be the greatest MMA fighter of all time, Anderson Silva lost his UFC Middleweight champion title to Chris Weidman with a knockout in the second round of the fight. The loss of the title was still a UFC record as it was the longest held title in UFC history after defending the title for seven years. “The Spider” and Weidman are due to have a rematch at UFC 168, but could this be the fall of a great MMA fighter? 

The UFC partnership with Fox has resulted in some of the highest viewer ratings since the partnership began in 2011. 

The BAMMA events get better and better every year. The recent partnership with Channel 5 has resulted in MMA becoming a mainstream sport. There are new fans anticipating the latest MMA fights and new participants looking to learn the combat sport. 

2013 may have been the best year of MMA. From the best fights of the year to the television highlights, MMA has come a long way since its humble beginnings of Brazilian jiu jitsu and shoot wrestling. 

Do you think 2013 was MMA’s greatest year? 

For the latest MMA and martial arts equipment ranging from MMA clothing to martial arts belts, check out the www.SportsDirect.com MMA collection. 

Is UFC on FOX 9 the Best Free Card Ever?

Is UFC on FOX 9 the Best Free Card Ever?
by Jack Broadey - @j3cK_b

In all my time watching the UFC this is not only the best free card the UFC and Zuffa have produced it is probably the best single card they have produced full stop. It has everything. Title fights, fights with title implications, comeback fights and just generally very good stylistic match ups.

The main event sees Anthony Pettis defend his lightweight strap for the 1st time. With TJ Grant still unavailable the next viable contender steps up to the plate, that man is Josh Thomson. This is a better stylistic fight and should be all out war in a standup battle. On any other card you would expect this fight to be a solid fight of the night contender, it still is but has some serious competition. I will be bold and predict the fight of the year will come from this card.

The only slight criticism if the co main event you can have is that it's only 3 rounds long. When that's the biggest concern you have of a fight then your onto something. The co main event will see Urijah Faber v Michael McDonald battle it out. With Dominic Cruz status still unknown this could very well find the next bantamweight contender. Both men are stuck in the Vitor Belfort position in that they've suffered recent damaging losses to the champion. Barao has pretty much cleaned out his division now so the winner of this fight will more than deserve there rematch.

The next fight on the card is dairy similar to the above. Carlos Condit V Matt Brown has violence written all over it. It can't fail to deliver. This will win something of the night and possibly year. Condit is in a similar position that Faber and McDonald find themselves in. A win over Brown is serious news now though after the tear he's been on. Brown has serious incentives here. A win almost certainly guarantees a title shot. The only shame here again is that it's not a main event and as such will only be 3 rounds. That's 2 fights i am already kicking myself that this isn't a 5 rounder. That's the consequence for building such a fantastic card.

The next fight might not stand out as much or look as thrilling on paper. Lentz-Mendes is however a fantastic fight and had serious title implications. Lentz has looked amazing since his drop to featherweight and both men have been tearing through the division. Mendes is again in that position of having recently lost to the champion and that's still fresh in the mind. He's done everything in his power to set that right though and knocking Clay Guida out is a serious statement. This is very important fight to figure a lot of things out in the featherweight division.

We won't go as in depth into the rest of the card but if we have a glance through you will realise the top end action doesn't end here. Ian McCall snapped his losing streak winning impressively in Brazil. He has an interesting fight on his hands as he takes on Scott Jorgensen making his flyweight debut. Only 1-3 in his last 4 but those losses coming to some of the very best, the same as McCall in a way. The winner moves into contention at flyweight as the division is still very shallow in its early days. 2 lightweight fights next as we have the perennial 'of the night winner Joe Lauzon back in action against Mac Danzig and Danny Castillo v Edson Barboza. Lauzon tends to always be in very exciting fights with his last outing being the anomaly. Barboza has looked fantastic so far in the UFC and looks to keep gaining experience in his quest to win gold.

The latest announced fight is perhaps the closest to call. Both men winning different seasons of TUF we have Court McGee against the youngest ever 'ultimate fighter' Kelvin Gastelum. Both men have amazing heart and have come through as serious underdogs. Can they be any more than gatekeepers. They have to win this to move up I the division and only one man can do that. It's a great fight so low down on a card and it just adds to what should be a fantastic night. I could quite easily see any one of these fights being spectacular enough to earn fight of the year honours. The top 3 fights on the card are as loaded and stacked as you will ever find. What's your prediction for fight of the night? Will it be good enough to earn fight of the year? I can't wait to find out.

Benson Henderson v Anthony Pettis 2 is on

Benson Henderson set to face Anthony Pettis at UFC 164

by Jack Broadey @J3cK_b

The lightweight title fight we all wanted is on. Albeit in controversial fashion. Anthony Pettis was due to face Jose Aldo at UFC 163 on August 3rd. He will now fight at UFC 164 on August 31st. He was forced to pull out of the Aldo fight with a minor injury on doctors orders. A mere 4 weeks later he will instead face off for the Lightweight title.

Pettis is no stranger to the title controversy. Pettis entered the UFC as the reigning WEC lightweight champion after Zuffa merged the companies. He was originally scheduled as the No1 contender in early 2011 until Frankie Edgar battled Gray Maynard to a draw. With no one winning the fight the rematch was scheduled straight away. Leaving the Pettis situation up in the air. He decided not to wait around and battled Clay Guida to a tough split decision loss. That loss cost him his number 1 contender status. 

Ben Henderson will know all about Anthony Pettis and will relish his chance to take revenge. Henderson was struck by the now infamous show time kick. Pettis launched himself off the cage to land a flying kick to Henderson face and drop in the 5th round off the last ever WEC bout. The fight was awarded fight of the year 2010 and the rematch is a long time coming. 

Henderson has now defended his UFC lightweight strap 3 times after controversially winning the title from Frankie Edgar. He edged another controversial Edgar decision before dominating Nate Diaz. He went back to the normal with another controversial decision this time over Gilbert Melendez. Henderson has been there and seen it all. He will hope his title experience will help in this much anticipated rematch.

The Featherweight landscape in the UFC

Whats next for the UFC featherweight division

by Jack Broadey @J3cK_b

If it wasn't already exciting enough the featherweight division just got a whole lot more interesting, complicated even. Most fans knew Frankie Edgar was a top level Featherweight despite him not ever having won at the weight in the UFC and being on a 3 fight losing skid.

He had forced the FW champion to give him all he had and Jose Aldo had the "the answer" to Edgar edging out a super close decision. Edgar finally got back into the win column that he so richly deserved on Saturday night. He beat a game Charles Oliveira in a competitive but clear decision. Oliveira proved he could live with Edgar but couldn't quite get the better of him wherever the fight went. Oliveira is young and can sharpen his skill set and come back again.

Also on Saturday night a fight originally stated for UFC London occurred. Cub Swanson finally got his hands on Dennis Siver. Congratulations have to go to Joe Silva on this one. He stuck to his guns after the original matchup fell apart and he was rewarded for his matchmaking. Again both men delivered with one man standing tall at the end.

Cub Swanson is on quite a tear now. When Anthony Pettis had to pull out of his fight with Jose Aldo many fans felt Swanson deserved the call up. He took his streak to 5 wins in a row and stopping 4 of them on that run. He has stopped George Roop, Ross Pearson, Charles Oliveira and now Dennis Siver. He also earned a decision win over Dustin Poirier in that time. All top competition and Swanson has looked better each and every time he enters the Octagon.

The question that remains locked over his head though is what happened before his hot streak. Ricardo Lamas stopped Swanson 2 years ago at the very 1st Fox event. He's been on a roll of his own ever since and it would be hard to argue that Swanson deserves a title shot over Lamas. Looking slightly further back he holds a decision loss to Chad Mendes, and more importantly a brutal KO loss at the hands of Jose Aldo.

Jose Aldo won by flying double knee KO in just 8 seconds against Swanson. At the top of the featherweight division it is so stacked that it would be hard to sell a rematch between the two. Swanson has two saving factors. The first is he cant seem to stop winning. The second is Aldo has been so dominant he has almost beat all of the top contenders already.

We have Ricardo Lamas, Cub Swanson, Frankie Edgar, Chad Mendes and even Anthony Pettis all as viable contenders at the top of the division. A lot of what happens next rests on Pettis' shoulders. Dana White seems to be quite fond of him and let's be honest who doesn't want to see Aldo-Pettis? Pettis will have a lot of sway on the future of the Featherweight division. There will be many twists and turns to come yet so strap yourself in for what has fast become the most exciting unmissable division in the UFC.

Pettis Injured, Korean Zombie now Meets Jose Aldo at UFC 163

Pettis Injured, Korean Zombie now Meets Jose Aldo at UFC 163
 by Jack Broadey - @j3ck_b

Dana White today revealed the big title fight between Antony Pettis and Jose Aldo has had to be called off. A knee injury has forced Pettis to pull out of UFC 163. It's a massive shame for Pettis who has claims to being the number 1 contender at Lightweight before deciding to chance his arm at Aldo at Featherweight.

It was a dream matchup for fans and a legitimate super-fight. There styles clashed perfectly and the fight was bound to be fireworks with both men capable of landing multiple ridiculous strikes from all angles. Kicks, punches, knees, both men have the full arsenal of striking talents. We can only hope this match is made later on this year but many cards would have to fall into place for that to happen.

The next step for Aldo is still to headline UFC 163. Dana White managed to replace Pettis straight away and we still get a Featherweight title clash. Fan favourite Chan Sung Jung or "the Korean Zombie" as he's affectionately called answered the call.

He last fought in May of 2012 winning a fight of the night and submission of the night award with a superb performance over Dustin Poirier. His last fight before was a 7 second knockout win over Mark Hominik. Before that? The 1st ever win by twister submission. The man knows how to finish fights and how to win in style. He's coming off an injury lay off and was originally scheduled for a UFC 162 return against Ricardo Lamas.

There are bound to be some complaints questioning if The Zombie deserves this fight. There are plenty of candidates at Featherweight. Chad Mendes is on a rebuilding effort at the moment and its too close to his KO loss to Aldo to be considered. Cub Swanson is rolling through thought opponents but the vivid image of Aldo's flying knee to KO him sticks in the mind still.

That leaves Zombies original opponent Lamas. As a good a roll he is on at the moment the decision ultimately came down to name recognition. Zombie has won fights and won them in style. That sends out a good positive message from Zuffa. Win fights and win them in style and you will get your reward. Aldo v Korean Zombie is no Aldo v Pettis but its a relevant featherweight title defense none the less. Injuries can't be helped and this is an intriguing match up in its place.