Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight kingpin, Jose Aldo, faces off with Interim strap-hanger, Conor McGregor, this Saturday (Dec. 12, 2015) inside MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

What's there to say that hasn't been said already?

Aldo is a straight killer. He's the only Featherweight champion in UFC history and has yet to really struggle in a fight since his sole loss more than 10 years ago. Despite this, he was up until recently the underdog to one of the sport's hottest stars.

That star is McGregor, and the knockout artist has been brutalizing fighters inside the Octagon for less than three years. However, the interim 145-pound division champion has become a massive draw with worlds of momentum behind him, as well as one of the most ravenous fan bases in the sport.

Let's take a look at the skills of each champion:

Striking

Aldo is one of the most vicious Muay Thai strikers to ever compete in mixed martial arts (MMA). He really uses the fundamentals of Muay Thai masterfully, executing the basics perfectly and with a level of speed and power that few can match.

The most devastating aspect of Aldo's striking is, of course, his low kicking. Aldo swings his shin like it's a whip, shredding his opponent's thigh and all the muscles underneath (GIF). After absorbing just a few of his destructive low kicks, most of his opponents fight notably different and are less willing to plant their feet and trade with the champion.

On the whole, Aldo's striking game is actually rather simple. He's stripped it down quite a bit in recent years, and now relies largely on the jab, hook and cross in combination with his low kick.

Now, if a fighter relies heavily on combinations of just four strikes, it doesn't sound all that difficult to block. However, Aldo is truly one of the best in the world at controlling distance, ensuring he chooses the proper weapon depending on how far away his opponent is and which direction he is moving.

Furthermore, Aldo operates on a different level of speed from the vast majority of athletes. Worse still, he properly feints. When Aldo feints, his opponent has two options: React to the feint or not. Either way, Aldo can take advantage. If his opponent does not react to the feint, Aldo will actually throw the strike faster than his opponent can react. On the other hand, actually reacting to the feint will only draw forth a strike that Aldo knows will land, as he now knows how you're planning to defend.

As for Aldo's actual boxing, his jab is rather sharp. It's also a peculiar situation, as Aldo never really showed any love for jabbing until he faced off with Frankie Edgar. Then, when finally faced with the wrestle-boxer, Aldo jammed his opponent's entrances and repeatedly snapped back his head, showing off a better jab than most fighters who think of themselves as boxers.

It was genuinely shocking to watch.

More commonly, Aldo throws his left hook and cross in abundance. However, he's always playing around with the speed at which he throws the strikes, or mixes them to the body, and is of course feinting all the while. When put in combination with his low kick, it quickly becomes apparent why Aldo is one of the best to ever live (GIF).

Finally, Aldo is very comfortable operating as a counter puncher. His head movement is very slick, and he'll also pivot around his opponent to avoid both takedowns and punches (GIF).

In his fight with Ricardo Lamas, Aldo showed off his ability to counter kicks, which could be pivotal in this match up. Whenever Lamas looked to land a low kick, Aldo would check and return a far harder kick. As seen above, Aldo would also pass Lamas' high kicks by and then dig into the back of his now-exposed leg, which is especially painful.

Aldo's opponent is also primarily a striker. McGregor has his own deep background in striking, as he's trained in both Karate and Taekwondo. Furthermore, McGregor was a national boxing champion in his youth.

McGregor's path to the title has been an interesting one. When he first joined UFC, he was very much a counter puncher, as he only pressured and threw kicks to force a reaction (GIF). That changed rather quickly, and in his last two fights, McGregor committed entirely to walking down his opponent and forcing him to absorb his brutal left hand.

While McGregor is pressuring his opponent, it really is all about landing his left hand. With his right, McGregor largely just paws at his opponent's hands and will occasionally try to sneak a hook around the guard. While McGregor can definitely put some power into his right hook, all his lead hand feinting and feeling is done with the goal of lining up his kill shot (GIF).

Despite the style change, McGregor is still incredibly effective with his kicks. However, they serve a different purpose now. Back when he was a counter puncher, McGregor would try to draw his opponent forward with his many flashy kicks.

Now, McGregor uses his kicks to pin his opponent in place and make head movement difficult. Once he's pressuring his opponents, they'll usually try to use lateral movement to avoid getting trapped along the fence, which is a smart decision. If they circle toward McGregor's left hand, great, but most fighters are smart enough to avoid that initially. Then, McGregor will instead attack with his spinning back kick or lead leg kicks.

Additionally, McGregor's left kick is an important weapon for him. The combination of the left straight and left roundhouse kick are a classic technique for Southpaws because it's very difficult for an Orthodox fighter to properly defend against both without slipping up (GIF).

Considering McGregor's power, most cannot afford many slip ups.

Lastly, McGregor found great success with his front snap kick against Chad Mendes. He repeatedly dug into the shorter man's mid-section, which definitely didn't help his short-notice gas tank. Plus, these kicks are very difficult to catch and maintain distance well, which make them a great weapon to use against wrestlers.

Wrestling

Aldo will go down in the history books as the greatest counter wrestler of his time. Not only is the Brazilian next to impossible to take down, but he brutally punishes fighters for trying to drag him to the mat.

Still, in this match up, Aldo's offensive takedown ability may be the more important. Though he only relies on his takedowns when fatigued or injured, Aldo is nonetheless a very strong wrestler. For example, in his bout with Chan Sung Jung, Aldo broke his foot early in the fight and spent the fight throwing Jung around from within the clinch.

Considering how little success a top control specialist like Dustin Poirier had with grappling "Korean Zombie," that's pretty impressive.

Additionally, Aldo likes to use a high, MMA-style double leg. He runs through the shot well, and his mastery of distance is helpful here, too. When faced with an opponent looking to close the distance -- and avoid leg kick hell -- it's not hard for Aldo to time a reactive shot.

Since Aldo's takedown defense is unlikely to come into play in this bout, I won't go into too much detail. Suffice to say, Aldo's distance control, footwork and athleticism combine to make an athlete that is nearly impossible to takedown. Worse still, Aldo excels at punishing takedown attempts with uppercuts at range and knees in the clinch.

After six fights inside the Octagon, we finally have enough footage to get a fair read on McGregor's wrestling ability. On the whole, McGregor is an above-average -- but not elite -- wrestler who relies greatly on his size and athleticism.

Offensively, McGregor has found similar success with the reactive double leg, although that worked for him back when he was looking to fight as a counter puncher. More recently, McGregor did finish a couple of nice single-leg takedowns on Max Holloway. Though Holloway had not yet hit his stride, that's still an impressive enough accomplishment that other grapplers failed to pull off.

McGregor's takedown defense is not bad at all. He's got a powerful sprawl and does a nice job maintaining distance on his feet. Plus, his athleticism is a huge benefit, as that really does aid him in scrambles.

That said, the success Mendes had taking down McGregor must be recognized. Now, the situation is a bit odd -- McGregor was training for a striker, and Mendes took the bout on two weeks notice -- but it nonetheless revealed that McGregor could be taken down by a skilled wrestler who could match his athleticism.

Does Aldo fit that description? That question cannot be answered until Saturday night.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Unfortunately, we haven't seen a ton of Brazilian jiu-jitsu from either fighter. Both men have proven to be very competent guard passers on the mat, but there isn't much else to really analyze in terms of their offensive preferences.

While the lack of footage may prevent exact details, I can say with a great deal of confidence that Aldo is an excellent grappler. He's one of Andre Pederneiras' black belts, which by itself is a massive accomplishment. Furthermore, Aldo was actually a well-regarded prospect on the jiu-jitsu circuit before shifting his focus to MMA.

Most notably, Aldo twice defeated Ruben "Cobrinha" Charles as a brown belt. Considering "Cobrinha's" massive success since then as a black belt, that's a huge accomplishment, and that deep level of jiu-jitsu knowledge does not simply disappear.

McGregor, meanwhile, hasn't shown any major strengths or weaknesses on the ground recently. As mentioned, he did show some solid guard passing in his UFC career, using both the cut and smash pass to great effect against Holloway.

McGregor's defensive jiu-jitsu is a bit more questionable. Though both of his career losses are more than five years ago, they did come via submission. Plus, Mendes did manage to pass McGregor's guard several times, though McGregor did an excellent job of scrambling and defending the guillotine in those situations.

In all likelihood, McGregor has shored up the holes in his grappling defense during his time with SBG Ireland. However, it is a bit disappointing that McGregor never even toyed with the idea of offensive jiu-jitsu from his guard when Mendes took him down, nor did he even try to stand up from the guard.

Conclusion

I won't ramble on too long about the most talked about fight of 2015, but it is a very interesting battle. Aldo is undoubtedly the more well-rounded athlete and has never been out-struck, but McGregor has the momentum and power to shock the Brazilian. Beyond all the outside circumstances and trash talk, this is undoubtedly one of the most high-level striker clashes in the history of the sport. For that reason alone, it's a must-watch fight.

*****

Andrew Richardson, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt, is an undefeated amateur fighter who trains at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. In addition to learning alongside world-class talent, Andrew has scouted opponents and developed winning strategies for several of the sport's most elite fighters.