Font Vs Aldo: Post Fight-Day Thoughts

[Shay Brennan]

Whenever Aldo commits to those leg kicks, he knocks his opponents off their feet. That's twice it happened at bw, against the champion Yan and Font. Too bad he has to restrain himself from using it.
His boxing has reached a whole nw level as of now.

I wouldn't say he would have beaten Yan even with the leg kicks. He wasn't used to his new weight class then. He would've gassed eventually and got beat up. Maybe I'm wrong. @Zebra Cheeks
Now, that his cardio,vboxing is better after he settled down in bw and got some fights in, I really wanna see him rematch Yan.

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

Whenever Aldo commits to those leg kicks, he knocks his opponents off their feet. That's twice it happened at bw, against the champion Yan and Font. Too bad he has to restrain himself from using it.
His boxing has reached a whole nw level as of now.

I wouldn't say he would have beaten Yan even with the leg kicks. He wasn't used to his new weight class then. He would've gassed eventually and got beat up. Maybe I'm wrong. @Zebra Cheeks
Now, that his cardio,vboxing is better after he settled down in bw and got some fights in, I really wanna see him rematch Yan.

I’m game for any yan fight. I love watching him fight and the division is so juicy. I don’t think I’ve ever been more upset with a fighter than I am Aljo for all these delays

 

[Last Falconry]

it was kinda weird seeing Aldo hurt a guy that many times and not be able to finish the job. I know that time makes fools of us all, but still. He had Font dangling by a thread in there at least four times

 

[Shaddows]

As a lot of you know I’m a huge Font fan. Last night was a tough one, but I’d like to give some thoughts.

I have to say that I think font came in light (weight) with the intention of pushing the pace and making Aldo work hard and accumulate damages. It was the max Holloway game plan. Which makes sense, Aldo lost to Holloway twice I believe. And his cardio was a vulnerability. But Aldo made adjustments and because he was ahead he used grappling and large meaningful actions to shut down font.

There was a key moment, I believe it was the end of the third. Aldo had a broken orbital (it seems), his leg was bothering him from kicking (he was holding it and massaging it before sitting down to get water, used almost half his corner time), and he looked exhausted. Font comes out of the corner and it’s obvious, round 4 is the round he was saving for, and he knows he’s behind. He gets too close, compromised his defense and Aldo once again knocked his ass down and smothered him knowing he was firmly and safely ahead on the cards due to multiple knockdowns.

I have to say, I think that key moment, had that gone differently the fight trajectory would look massively different. But instead of this being a story of a rising new face in a stacked division, it was a story about Aldo.

What made Aldo’s performance so great was that it monumentalizes why, after 17 years he’s still one of the best. Aldo learned from his losses to Holloway, and when someone came with a similar game plan, he wasn’t just ready, he had been waiting, starving for the opportunity to show he could dominate given the opportunity. This was a very dangerous Jose Aldo, and this fight, despite being a less prestigious opponent, meant a lot to him because of the way it was fought.

I think font will bounce back, and I genuinely hope we get to see TJ vs Aldo. Man, that’s one hell of a fight.

I think you forget to give credit where credit is due: It is easy to copy a gameplan from another fighter. But Rob is not Max, and that is the bottom line.
You can copy his gameplan, but since you don't have the same tools, the results are far from guaranteed...

So while I do agree Aldo changed his gameplan to not tire too fast, the reason why the gameplan did not work was different.

Let me quote myself from another thread:

I think you are being far too hard on Rob.
IMHO bottom line is simple: Aldo hits hard AF and caught Rob a few times.

Rob was doing everything right on first and got dropped on last seconds of the round.
He still was brave enough to start pressuring Aldo again, and it was working. Aldo did get tired.
But Rob couldn't deal with Aldo's power. He had volume, but Aldo would drop him every time he touched Rob.

Give him some respect. He fought until the end, despite knowing his tools were not enough to beat Aldo. Aldo is just too good, too experience to get overwhelmed by another fighter.
But that's not Rob's fault. He did what he could with what he got.

 

[Krixes]

It was a great fight. I'm a huge Aldo fan but thought Font was going to win. It seemed Font was landing double the volume all night but Aldo would land 1 big shot every round to steal it. When Aldo started using his wrestling/grappling to hold Font down I knew it was over for him. It was a great fight, the 50-45 doesn't really tell the whole story.

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

I think you forget to give credit where credit is due: It is easy to copy a gameplan from another fighter. But Rob is not Max, and that is the bottom line.
You can copy his gameplan, but since you don't have the same tools, the results are far from guaranteed...

So while I do agree Aldo changed his gameplan to not tire too fast, the reason why the gameplan did not work was different.

Let me quote myself from another thread:

Not a lack of credit. It’s just not a thread about max Holloway.

Font has plenty of tools that made replicating the game plan possible, but for example lacks some things like Holloway massive size, which made it impossible for Aldo to do things like say…muscle him to the ground and stay on top of him to burn rounds when his cardio was compromised.

We’re also a weight division down where Aldo is physically much larger compared to his opponents. So instead of giving up some size for bulk, he’s a bit more appropriately scaled.

And yeah, Holloway is arguably the second best volume striker in MMA history, of course font isn’t on that level.

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

It was a great fight. I'm a huge Aldo fan but thought Font was going to win. It seemed Font was landing double the volume all night but Aldo would land 1 big shot every round to steal it. When Aldo started using his wrestling/grappling to hold Font down I knew it was over for him. It was a great fight, the 50-45 doesn't really tell the whole story.

Yeah, I have an iPad setup next to my tv that has a live ticker that displays live fight stats like betting odds, sig strikes etc… control, all that shit.

At one point in the second is was 24-48 on sig strikes in favor of font. In the first at one point it was 18-4 in favor of font. I think the damage was catching up to Aldo he just got all the right moves in all the right places and his game plan was perfect. He knew exactly what he needed and executed it beautifully

 

[Shaddows]

Not a lack of credit. It’s just not a thread about max Holloway.

Font has plenty of tools that made replicating the game plan possible, but for example lacks some things like Holloway massive size, which made it impossible for Aldo to do things like say…muscle him to the ground and stay on top of him to burn rounds when his cardio was compromised.

We’re also a weight division down where Aldo is physically much larger compared to his opponents. So instead of giving up some size for bulk, he’s a bit more appropriately scaled.

And yeah, Holloway is arguably the second best volume striker in MMA history, of course font isn’t on that level.

Good analysis.
though I still think Aldo was not that great last night.
His corner were begging him for more leg kicks. Begging!
And he was too gun-shy, which allowed Rob to put such pressure on him.
IMHO TJ Is a step too big for Aldo... though I guess we will find out soon enough

 

[Kryptt]

My understanding is that Aldo was involved in a motorcycle accident that compromised his leg. Now, to what extent I have no idea, and this was years ago

This - At least as far as I can recall any mention or delving.

Anyhow amazing fight and still a fan of both.

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

Good analysis.
though I still think Aldo was not that great last night.
His corner were begging him for more leg kicks. Begging!
And he was too gun-shy, which allowed Rob to put such pressure on him.
IMHO TJ Is a step too big for Aldo... though I guess we will find out soon enough

Did you see him clutch his leg he kicked with in the third as he was at the corner? He was massaging it and gave up half his corner time to tend to it. I don’t think it’s a matter of him being gun shy or being afraid of tds. I think the guys who’ve been in the sport for a long time have watched these guys break their legs fishing out leg kicks, and I’m sure it can hurt your leg as well if you aren’t careful. If you can break it being the one kicking, I’m sure it can fuck you up too if you over utilize it.

 

[Fukkup]

Yeah, I have an iPad setup next to my tv that has a live ticker that displays live fight stats like betting odds, sig strikes etc… control, all that shit.

At one point in the second is was 24-48 on sig strikes in favor of font. In the first at one point it was 18-4 in favor of font. I think the damage was catching up to Aldo he just got all the right moves in all the right places and his game plan was perfect. He knew exactly what he needed and executed it beautifully

I remember they gave a stat out at maybe the end of the 2nd saying font had landed a shitload of leg kicks but Aldo was checkin nearly all of them. Stats don't mean a whole lot.

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

I remember they gave a stat out at maybe the end of the 2nd saying font had landed a shitload of leg kicks but Aldo was checkin nearly all of them. Stats don't mean a whole lot.

It keeps track of blocks etc. sig strikes. Accuracy. The ones they put on the screen are easily one dimensional and “loaded”. But when you have an entire stat sheet it can help dissect a round a little bit. Of course the eye test is more important. Just helps a bit.

 

[Fukkup]

It keeps track of blocks etc. sig strikes. Accuracy. The ones they put on the screen are easily one dimensional and “loaded”. But when you have an entire stat sheet it can help dissect a round a little bit. Of course the eye test is more important. Just helps a bit.

Aye don't get me wrong theres nothing wrong with stats per se but they are wide open to manipulation and need to be used in the right context. One thing that is really pissing me off these days is the commentators forming their opinions of how a round went based on stats despite sitting there and watching it in real time.

Fighter X is out struck by Fighter Y due to Fighter Y having more power and better shots but fighter X lands a lot of checked leg kicks. Stats show Fighter X having more significant strikes landed despite clearly losing. Cue commentary team 'well that round was closer than we thought' or 'well looks like you could make an argument for Fighter X winning that round' etc

 

[Shaddows]

Did you see him clutch his leg he kicked with in the third as he was at the corner? He was massaging it and gave up half his corner time to tend to it. I don’t think it’s a matter of him being gun shy or being afraid of tds. I think the guys who’ve been in the sport for a long time have watched these guys break their legs fishing out leg kicks, and I’m sure it can hurt your leg as well if you aren’t careful. If you can break it being the one kicking, I’m sure it can fuck you up too if you over utilize it.

Oh, I saw it.
But the screams for him to kick were on the first and second rounds. He finally started on the third.
The screams were in Portuguese, but they were VERY clear.

 

[Cindynice420]

War AldoThe man is a legend

 

[BEATDOWNS]

I was pretty dickered by the time the main event was on. It was a decent fight from what i could see through the double vision. lol Font is tough he'll be back. So happy for Jose!

WEC Never Die!

 

[MCS]

Font was doing the right thing with volume and pressure, but lack of durability was the key in this loss. Aldo's strikes are hard, but he's fought plenty of opponents who took the shots better. A couple of times, even in the 5th round, looked that Aldo was close to being finished. The eye was a mess and Font was landing first in exchanges. But pretty much every time Aldo opened up Font was reeling.

 

[JSN]

I'm a huge Font fan as well man, as you know. He needed to feint more to give Aldo more to think about and make Aldo second guess in order to prevent Aldo from getting his timing down. Font did do a lot of good work, and I really liked his body shots, and I did think the basis of his gameplan (present aldo with several different looks, try to bury Aldo in volume, and clinch with Aldo to wear on him) was a good gameplan, but he just needed to be a little more tricky with more feints to throw off the rhythym and mess up Aldo's reads. Aldo was just better as much as that hurts me to say, but the fact that Font has become as good as he is despite not doing any martial arts training until he was like 21 is pretty insane. Font and his team should be proud of that performance even though he lost, very few people have brought the fight to Aldo like that before.

Unfortunately for Font, he's not a young guy. He's in his prime right now and probably has another good 2 years at best in it. Any improvements he can make in that time are going to be minor ones and tactical ones, and those will of course help him; but I think we've pretty much seen his ceiling and it's as a top 5 guy and that's nothing to be ashamed of. I'd love for him to prove me wrong, but time just isn't on his side. He'll still likely pick up a few damn impressive wins though and I hope he gets paid because he goes for it every time.

One thing interesting about Font, relating to your point that he needed to feint more, is that Font mostly only throws one jab; it’s this beautiful, textbook perfect quick jab with no tell. Which is not really a jab you can feint since it has no tell. He would be well served by adding some different kinds of jabs (at least a power jab), so he could actually feint effectively.

Right now he’s at his best by using his touch jab to disrupt everything his opponent wants to do and then building off it to land power shots. But his ability to freeze guys by landing it is the lynchpin of his striking for better or worse.

One possible suite things he could add that could help a lot is more front kicks. He’s already decent, but adding more of them gives him another jab-like weapon to threaten with, and the nice thing is they compliment his game well. He mostly stays out of danger when he throws them since they’re a fast, long-range weapon.

 

[JSN]

Font was doing the right thing with volume and pressure, but lack of durability was the key in this loss. Aldo's strikes are hard, but he's fought plenty of opponents who took the shots better. A couple of times, even in the 5th round, looked that Aldo was close to being finished. The eye was a mess and Font was landing first in exchanges. But pretty much every time Aldo opened up Font was reeling.

I don’t think I can co-sign that. The shots Font took were hard and flush. The only guy I can recall walking through shots like that were Max, who has a retardedly good chin, I think took fewer per round anyway, and was tagging Aldo more in the process.

IMO the effect those punches were having speak more to Font spending too much time standing where he shouldn’t have been standing and lack of secondary defense while doing it.

 

[Substance Abuse]

I just feel compelled to say after the criticism Aldo faced last night in overcoming a tough test that I do find the contingent of this forum complaining about Aldo grappling last night plain dumb. This is MMA. He showed a complete game to win last night, just like Max did against Yair. Some of you need to go watch boxing or Glory. Do you guys even know what you're watching?

Even funnier is Aldo either dropped or hurt Font in four of those five rounds last night and he's still getting shit for out-grappling him last night and continuing to work to pass despite being in top control.

MMA fans are the worst.

Also as an aside, how crazy is it that these guys have almost 15 years of tape on Aldo and how he fights and they still have issues with his style. Him mixing it up is enabling him to win these fights despite injuries and mileage almost completely removing his kicks. The tools are sharper despite the athleticism, durability and reflexes obviously fading. What a legend.

WAR Font for bringing out the best in Aldo by the way. That guy is a really good fighter. Anyone giving him shit doesn't realize how good Aldo still is despite being shop worn.