

Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Last week I said I was having trouble getting hyped up for their second fight, but if a third fight between Chad Mendes and Jose Aldo were signed, I'd be booking my flights and accommodation immediately.

In spite of my inability to get amped up for the bout, and pessimism over Mendes' chances, I adhered to what I call the first rule of fight journalism:

Never count anyone out.

The rule was right and I was wrong.

At UFC 179, Mendes managed to put the featherweight champion, Jose Aldo, through five rounds of hell, even after getting dropped blatantly after the horn at the end of the first round. I won't accuse Aldo of deliberately cheating, the pause before his two punches after the klaxon was so blatant that he could well have been oblivious to the horn. The problem was that intentional or not, an illegal punch decked the challenger and changed the entire complexion fight for the next two rounds. Yet the referee did nothing about it.

The problem with the best athletes in the world is that they got there by absolutely not settling for second place. While that drive and mantra makes for great inspirational posters, it is also what makes people like Lance Armstrong so nasty. He is an extreme case, and most won't go out of their way to ruin other people's lives as Armstrong did, but most of the best athletes out there will take every inch a referee will give them. And most of them expect the other guys to do the same. For instance, here is Gary Neville giving an elite competitors view on diving in football.

When John McCarthy referees a Jon Jones fight, he will shout “close your hand, Jon” every time Jones attempts his usual pokey naughtiness. When Dan Miragoliotta was put in charge of Jones' last fight, Jones realized early that Big Dan wasn't going to say anything, and from that moment on his open hands were all over Teixeira's face.

Realizing that Marc Goddard was doing little to enforce the rules, Mendes versus Aldo II descended into a gritty war of eye pokes, groin taps and clashing heads. Both Aldo and Mendes were guilty of some rough and tumble tactics, but without a doubt this was one of the finest fights of the year, so let's take a look at the skills displayed by both men.

The Hook is Still King of the Counters

Much of Mendes' success in the fight came from what we have talked about as a general rule in every Killing the King piece since we started examining UFC champions. If there isn't a glaring weakness—and there rarely is—a challenger can have a surprising amount of success just by working his hardest to take away what the champion is best at.

Mendes came out aggressive and applying pressure, dissuading the low kicks which Aldo will throw once he knows the opponent will stand still long enough for him to land and recover it. Mendes also fought with his palms well out in front of him, making the window or “The Mummy” stance which is so effective in ring cutting against good boxers. Mendes' hands were in this position, ready to parry the wicked jab which Aldo has shown in recent years—and it worked a treat.

Aldo led with a long, obvious right uppercut, and Mendes countered him with a tight left hook. A thing of beauty. The problem with the uppercut is that to throw the long powerful ones that Aldo likes to, you leave yourself uncovered on the punching side for a sizeable period.

Not only did this stun Aldo, but it also answered Aldo's assertion (which I previously agreed with), that Mendes only has a right hand. Duane Ludwig has done marvelous things for that camp, that cannot be overstated.

To see this exact same scenario in play elsewhere, I present you with Tommy Morrison versus Razor Ruddock. “The Duke” was getting his butt handed to him for most of the fight, but as Ruddock threw one of the right uppercuts which had hurt Morrison frequently in the bout, Morrison timed one of the finest left hooks I have ever seen.

But Aldo is a smart, adaptive fighter. He's struggled before and turned it around. Realizing that Mendes was taking away his jab with the parries, Aldo took advantage and hook around Mendes' right hand. Constantly parrying the jab on a hair trigger can leave a fighter's right jawline exposed to the left hook. Even the great Joe Louis had the most trouble with fighters who could throw a fast, wild left hook out of nowhere, because he fought with his right hand forward and ready to parry or check the opponent's lead hand most of the time.

Aldo would show Mendes several jabs, pausing in between each, and then attempt to hook around Mendes' hand as Mendes looked to parry the jab again.



Jab, jab, hook. Then a nice hook to set up a right straight. Aldo also used a left uppercut well to circumvent Mendes' right hand.

But Aldo's best counter punch in the early going was also a left hook over Mendes' right hand. The left hook really is the most awkward punch in the arsenal to deal with, and a real fight changer.

Aldo took the decision in the bout, and I believe he deserved it—even the appropriate point docking in the first round probably wouldn't have changed the result—but Mendes was light years away from the jumpy wrestler who got in the cage with Aldo the first time. He was kicking with confidence (as the wrestler should always be able to against the striker), checking Aldo's own kicks to the point that Aldo stopped throwing them, and setting up his punches beautifully with movement.

Nowhere can this change in Mendes be summed up more clearly than in these two moments. In the first bout, Aldo jabbed at Mendes and widened his stance ready to feed Mendes the single and limp leg out. He knew Mendes would shoot under the punch and sprawled on it with ease. Disheartening stuff for Mendes who had run through almost every takedown he had attempted to that point in MMA.

Three years on? Here's Aldo jabbing and expecting Mendes to duck under it again.



Aldo drops his weight down onto a wound up uppercut.

At UFC 179, Mendes was comfortably striking with a guy that many (including myself) consider one of the better strikers in MMA and that is huge progress. I would have liked to see Mendes actually shoot some takedowns. Even if he failed, it would make other attempts at these level change uppercuts more effective and get Aldo in a low stance again, ready to have his legs kicked (another strategy I would have loved to see Mendes continue after round one).

But even in a loss, for the second time in a year Team Alpha Male have proved to me the value of that first rule of fight journalism. You really can't ever count anyone out in this business.

Odds and Sods

Elsewhere on the card, Wilson Reis picked up an unexpected win over Scott Jorgensen. I usually tune in to Reis' fights because of his ridiculous grappling talent; you are almost guaranteed to see a slick sweep from half guard or a mind blowing guard pass when Reis fights. But at UFC 179, Reis looked uncharacteristically crisp on the feet. Perhaps he was simply making the most of not suffering the reach and height disadvantage he so often has to work with.

Knocking down Jorgensen with a crisp left middle kick as Jorgensen circled into it, Reis dragged the obviously winded American to the mat and finished him with a tight arm triangle choke. That is how I love to see striking and grappling mixed in MMA. If you don't have the wrestling pedigree, wind them first, then get them down. Lovely stuff and well worth catching up on when it hits Fight Pass.

But the card was by no means short of good jiu jitsu showings, UFC 179 was held in Brazil after all. Though it was the gangly American, Neil Magny, showing off the effectiveness of the leg drag position for striking. The leg drag position is essentially crossing the opponent's legs over each other from the back side but not allowing him to roll away. Fedor Emelianko hinted at the possible ground and pound effectiveness of the position as he used it to set up a sledgehammer blow against Heath Herring.

But Neil Magny held his man here and pounded him out.

Finally, an awesome transition into an armbar from the great BJJ competitor, Gilbert 'Durinho' Burns. This came as his opponent, Christos Giagos attempted to buck and roll from the underside of mount. Durinho performed an over-the-back transition into the armbar, which Eddie Bravo dubbed the swim move, where the top knee goes over the head, and the shin forces the opponent's head into a roll, but clears the face as he turns in order to secure the armbar.

Durinho's smoothness in the transition, and dexterity as Giagos attempts to keep his head down before Durinho can pass the leg over it, are something to behold. B.J. Penn used to like this transition too, and used it well against Jens Pulver in their second meeting. There is even some footage of a seminar which Penn gave wherein he suggests cupping the opponent's thigh from mount and encouraging them to turn so that you can attempt it.



Airtight.

Pick up Jack Slack's ebooks at his blog Fights Gone By. Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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