Aldo and Holloway Fight to Step Out of McGregor’s Shadow

In November 2009, Jose Aldo showed Mike Brown what the next breed of fighter looked like. Brown was tough, imposing, and large for the weight class. He punched his way from relative obscurity to WEC gold a year before he met Aldo, and notched two successful title defenses after that. While he would not match Aldo’s speed and his attack would feature a less diverse array of strikes compared to his Brazilian opponent, perhaps, it was reasoned, Brown’s power, wrestling, and grittiness would bring him the title. The sports books closed with Aldo as a betting underdog. It would be his last fight as an underdog for more than six years.

Aldo dismantled Brown at every turn. Brown had never been stopped with strikes in the 26 professional fights before he met Aldo, and then Aldo simply overwhelmed the division’s toughest fighter, winning by second round TKO.

From there, Aldo dominated Urijah Faber in the fight that proved MMA’s lighter weights as a drawing attraction, and before the end of the year, UFC named Aldo its first featherweight champion. For years, the featherweight division did not become an established drawing attraction, in large part due to its ruler. Aldo would become a star in Brazil, but never learned to speak English, had few exciting bouts, and even fewer big name opponents, so he didn’t catch on elsewhere. But he was unquestionably the division’s best, just as he was one of the world’s best regardless of weight class. He was the division’s constant, the final boss who was so far ahead of everyone else.

And then the storm hit fast. Conor McGregor strutted into the UFC featherweight division in mid-2013 and was a top title contender before the fall leaves fell in 2014, despite missing 11 months of that time due to an ACL injury. He was brash, arrogant, the best talker in the sport, and very, very good. And he was coming for Jose Aldo.

The two finally clashed in December 2015. To show McGregor’s influence and ability to grab the spotlight, the fight attracted roughly one million more purchasers on pay-per-view than Aldo’s last title defense before it. Fans anticipated a fight, and instead got an appetizer. Aldo overextended himself and McGregor countered with a left hand to end it in thirteen seconds. For a super-clash of the greatest featherweight of all-time and the fast-rising, fast-talking challenger, it was a disappointment. McGregor immediately left the division, never to defend his title, and was stripped of the featherweight belt shortly after winning the lightweight title a year later.

A year-and-a-half on from Aldo vs. McGregor, the division is still feeling the ripple of effects of McGregor’s victory and subsequent absence. Virtually every story relating to the featherweight championship mentions the one-time belt-holder that tore down a castle Aldo had built over the course of six years in thirteen seconds, and every fan remembers it vividly.

On Saturday at UFC 212 – a show without much else going for it – Jose Aldo and Max Holloway fight for the featherweight championship. In many ways, it’s the first true featherweight title bout since Aldo vs. McGregor, and for that reason, Conor McGregor casts a large shadow over the contest.

In addition to leaving the division without having lost the belt, McGregor has beaten both fighters. Two years before he stopped Aldo, McGregor won every round against Holloway, despite tearing his ACL in the process, and took home a unanimous decision. Since their bouts with McGregor, both Aldo and Holloway have improved. Aldo was at his best at UFC 200 against Frankie Edgar last summer, always a few steps ahead of the former lightweight champion. Holloway, only 21-years-old when he fought McGregor, has not lost since, rattling off ten consecutive victories on route to his showdown with Aldo. Since neither have the ability to shake off the stink of McGregor on the microphone, it will have to be done in the cage.

Aldo or Holloway will need one of the best performances of their careers on Saturday in order to move toward escaping McGregor’s shadow. They won’t completely escape it in one night, but an impressive showing can go a long way. The task is easier for Holloway than Aldo, because his loss came before he reached his peak, was far less spectacular, and far less seen.

Regardless of Saturday’s outcome, Aldo, Holloway, and featherweight title contenders to come will likely spend years trying to remove themselves from the large shadow McGregor cast over the division in thirteen seconds. Eventually, someone will once again become the unquestioned king of the featherweight division, but until then, McGregor’s impact will be felt.

Dan Plunkett has covered MMA for 411Mania since 2008. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @Dan_Plunkett.