UFC 237: Don’t Be Surprised if Jose Aldo Reclaims His Iron Throne As The ‘King of Rio’

Sometimes people make headlines for all the wrong reasons. Sometimes the stars are so crossed and tangled up in a complete clusterfuck that the whole story never comes to light. And sometimes, the truth is taken to the grave, like a dark secret that dies with an unsuspecting state witness who never makes it to trial to testify against the mob.

But then there are other times, vindicating times, when the truth prevails and heroes are resurrected from near death. Such is the case of UFC all-time great Jose Aldo, a fighter who nearly called it quits in 2015 after the public shame and scrutiny that accompanied his stunning 13-second knockout loss to Conor McGregor.

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See, for those who’ve only been following the fight game for a few years, chasing the meteoric rise of McGregor, Aldo may seem like a has been, a former great who crumbled on the biggest stage, drastically falling from grace at the behest and left hand of a bratty, loudmouthed Irishman. But Aldo, is, and always was, so much more than McGregor’s brief dance partner.

He’s the legend who built the featherweight division on his well-defined shoulders, carrying a generation of 145-pounders towards respect and relevance with some of the nastiest leg kicks in MMA history. And now, after two years of turmoil–between 2015 and 2017 he lost his belt twice, going 1-3 in the process–Aldo is in the midst of a late-career renaissance following back-to-back wins by knockout.

This Saturday, May 11, Jose Aldo returns to the Octagon for the latest installment in one of the great careers in mixed martial arts. And while his UFC 237 bout against Australian contender Alexander Volkanovski won’t be Aldo’s last, his fighting days are numbered, and, at this point, not to be missed.

No matter how you slice it, Aldo will never quite remove that stench and stain of McGregor from his story. He’ll always be that guy who let McGregor’s mind games get the best of him, but what Aldo has done in the last 10 months has greatly restored his legacy, helping many realize that he always was an MMA legend. He just ran into a brick wall that cut him down to size for a while. Now he is that brick wall.

Aldo’s game has always been full of flash. He’s a standup fighter, a Muay Thai specialist who devastates with leg kicks, bouncing around the canvas on the balls of his feet, fists permanently clenched and cocked for action. He charges the pocket with heavy hands and dances right back out before most fighters can ever lay a finger on him. And don’t even think about trying to take him down in the early going. Not only is his takedown defense just way too good, but Aldo has been known to even flip the script and ditch his signature leg kicks altogether, confusing the opportunistic wrestlers who are just hoping to convert an opening into a trip to the ground.

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All of that maybe sounds a bit too technical for those who don’t care for the finer stylistic points of mixed martial arts, but the fact remains that Aldo is really damn good. In fact, he’s so damn good that he’s even able to forgo some of his most dominant techniques and still win, but that likely won’t be the case when he faces Volkanovski in Rio De Janeiro.

Featured on the UFC 237 Pay Per View card (which airs exclusively on ESPN+), Aldo and Volkanovski are an interesting pairing, fighting for some pretty high stakes. Sure, Aldo has already lost to featherweight champion Max Holloway twice, but for Volkanovski, who is a perfect 6-0 in the UFC, a win could most definitely mean the next crack at the title.

For Aldo, however, the stakes are different. It’s all about pride and getting the win on home soil for his legion of fans and followers. It’s all about that moment after the win, when he jumps out of the cage and rushes into the crowd to celebrate with his people, when the country of Brazil puts him on their backs after he put them on his. And that’s why Jose Aldo is the “King of Rio,” because he brings such fire, and passion, and emotion into every strike that he makes an entire nation feel the depth and sincerity of his punches and kicks, resonating with the rich and the poor, and the weak and the powerful.

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Title or no title, Jose Aldo will alway be a people’s champion. It’s something that only Brazilians will really ever understand, but the rest of us wish we could. And it’s something that must be seen in order to feel and embrace.

By now, you already know the drill. The only way to watch Jose Aldo and his fists of fury on Saturday is on ESPN+, the app that also gives you access to:

-20 Live UFC Fight Nights Exclusively on ESPN+
-100+ total UFC fights, including early prelims, prelims and main-card events
-Season 2 of Dana White’s Contender Series, which airs exclusively on ESPN+
-ESPN+ members get Ariel & The Bad Guy, as well as award-winning editorial coverage
-Classic Fights and Fight Replays
-Streaming UFC (including pay-per-view fights) from any device through ESPN+

For new ESPN+ subscribers, you can get UFC 237 PPV and one year of ESPN+ for just $79.99. If you’re an existing ESPN+ subscriber, you can purchase UFC PPV 237 for just $59.99. So, what makes ESPN+ such an awesome service to have? Let us remind you.

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