Nov-19-2009
By Frank Curreri for WEC
LAS VEGAS – It’s no longer speculation, and he’s no longer a secret: Jose Aldo is clearly one of the world’s best pound-for-pound mixed martial artists. It will be hard for anyone to argue otherwise after the explosive Brazilian notched his ninth straight win by destroying WEC featherweight champion Mike Brown.
The outcome, which had been hotly debated by pundits leading up Wednesday night’s mega-fight at The Palms, was never in question once the bout commenced. In a battle billed as speed versus power, Aldo was the aggressor early, whacking Brown with leg kicks and drilling him with combinations. Brown tried to take the fight to the ground, where he presumed he would enjoy a sizable advantage, but Aldo proved even more difficult to take down than Urijah Faber had been, and he fought off the attempts. Brown scored here and there with kicks, but his hard overhand rights were largely blocked and did little damage to the composed challenger.
In round two, Aldo revved up his assault, and in a fistic flurry by both men, Brown slipped to the canvas on his knees and Aldo, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, pounced on him and took Brown’s back with hooks in. Brown ended up in a terrible position, face-down, and unable to move his hips. Brown’s head became an easy target and Aldo unleashed a rapid sequence of heavy punches upon it. With Brown failing to intelligently defend himself – and probably unable to defend himself because his hips were trapped – referee Steve Mazzagatti halted the bout at 1 minute 22 seconds of round two. The new champion fell to his knees and burst into tears.
“He was a pretty tough fighter,” said Aldo, who is now 16-1 and hasn’t lost in nearly four years. “Mike is very strong …I had to wait for the right moment to finish the fight.”
Plenty of people had questioned the quality of Aldo’s ground game, since all five of his prior WEC wins had come via TKO. But those who train with him recalled how he often beat multiple time world champion Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles in practices, and he showed his mettle on the ground by beating Brown, who coming into this fight had beaten Urijah Faber twice and had the look of a champion who could reign for a long time. Now the fallen champ will have to contemplate what went wrong and how he can fix it.
“He had a great night,” said Brown, who fell to 23-4 and sported a welt under this right eye. “He was landing the shots and I wasn’t; that’s how the game is. He’s a great fighter. He did a great job and exposed some holes that I have. It’s time for me to go back and start (improving) again.”















