Issue 136

December 2015

The UFC 145lb division is the most talked about weight class in MMA, and as its top four fighters prepare to face off in Las Vegas in December, Fighters Only breaks down the claims of the men trying to come out on top of this game of thrones.

Somewhere in 2015 we entered the era of the featherweight. The world has dropped its long-standing love of 250lb men who struggle to make it to the end of the first round without heaving for air. Now it’s all about the action at 145. The ‘little men.’ They’re fighters who were, until recently, too small for the casual fan to care about. 

The change has been due to Conor McGregor. No one can argue that point. But fighters who talk are a dime a dozen and McGregor’s discourse is only a shade better than most. The real secret to the explosion of the featherweight division is the cast of characters ‘The Notorious’ has to build off. 

In boxing, the decline of Muhammad Ali and his great rivals coincided with the rise of the middleweight divisions. The round-robin of fights between Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns and Roberto Duran proved to be one of the most exciting periods in the history of pugilism. 

They called them the four kings and in MMA, for the moment, it seems as though we are in our own age of four featherweight kings. Each one is fighting for the UFC throne, but which is best equipped to claim it? Fighters Only breaks down the attributes of the planet’s leading lights at 145lb.

Conor McGregor: The Alter Rex

The brash Irishman has brought eyes to his weight class like no one could have imagined. His path to a title shot was through a sturdy row of strikers and brawlers – McGregor made them all look sub-par. But matches with top-tier wrestlers were notably absent and in a division stacked with them everyone caught on to the UFC’s game. 

However, when José Aldo pulled out of a scheduled title fight with ‘The Notorious,’ it looked as though Zuffa’s strategy might go belly-up, as wrestling powerhouse Chad Mendes entered the fray as Aldo’s replacement. 

McGregor failed to stop takedowns, or do much on the ground, but each time he got to his feet he was able to wind Mendes with front snap kicks. Not the teep or pushing front kicks of Muay Thai, but those that swing up from the floor, stabbing inwards and upwards with speed. Mendes was knocked out in the second round with little gas left in his tank after he’d stood directly in front of his opponent. Now the interim champion – and with the Aldo match booked once again – McGregor is masterfully playing up the champion vs. champion angle that promoters loves to capitalize on. 

As a fighter, the 27-year-old is constantly growing. From one fight to the next he will add something new and exploit some flaw in his foe. Against Dustin Poirier it was the long left hook behind the right arm that ‘The Diamond’ raised every time he expected McGregor’s signature southpaw left straight. Against Diego Brandao it was the wheel kick. Against Max Holloway and Dennis Siver it was the jumping switch kicks and knees. That has been McGregor’s strength: absolute open-mindedness in the gym.

He came to the UFC as a counter-puncher and little else. In learning the classical snapping and turning kicks of taekwondo and karate, rare in traditional Muay Thai, he has been able to morph himself into a better offensive fighter. There’s been few counter-punches in his last three fights.

It used to be that McGregor would have to get close, smother his opponent’s lead hand and look for the long left straight. It was predictable and it just wouldn’t cut it at the highest levels. But with his kicks, he can now engage from further away and use his boxing freely once the kick has landed on either the target or their guard.

Out of all the leading featherweights, the interim champion might just be the worst stylistic matchup for Aldo. The Brazilian has always struggled to put away top-tier strikers. The long left straight, constant forward motion and straight kicks are horrible for a man giving up reach, using reactionary head movement and little lateral footwork. A focus on bodywork also raises questions about Aldo’s gas tank, which has been exposed in the later rounds. 

But equally, McGregor’s lengthy stance exposes him to the champ’s favorite low kicks. Furthermore, McGregor has come to focus on his kicking game to the detriment of his elusive counter-boxing style. He was hit with almost every right hand Chad Mendes threw.

With his difficulty stopping takedowns and his reliance on straight punches and front kicks – defused to an extent by lateral movement – it would seem the worst matchup for McGregor on paper is Frankie Edgar.

Frankie Edgar: The Shrunken Champion

Frankie Edgar was UFC champion as a small lightweight. He cut down to featherweight, and is still smaller than most of his opponents. But fighting bigger men has instilled three things in the New Jersey native – crisper technique, better strategy and a remarkable toughness. A slow starter, Edgar will often get rattled by strikes early in a bout, but his movement, crisp boxing, wrestling and conditioning almost always win out during a contest.

A shorter fighter gives up reach to his opponents, but benefits from a faster level change. This means that hitting the body and shooting in for takedowns are made much swifter. Edgar plays this to his advantage by throwing dipping jabs to the body or head for most of a round before switching into his signature method of picking up the single-leg. This looks almost identical to his opponent but instead of punching, he drives his palm into their lead shoulder or face, lightening their lead leg and allowing him to pick it up. 

After dropping to 145lb, Edgar faced Aldo for the title and came up short. But most felt he was winning the later rounds. Since then, Edgar has easily manhandled three tough featherweights in Charles Oliveira, Cub Swanson and Urijah Faber – along with a ‘gimme’ match against an aged BJ Penn. 

Against Faber, it was Edgar’s crisp counter-striking that carried the day. Each time ‘The California Kid’ threw his overhand right, Edgar would catch it, return with a right uppercut and burst into a combination. Against Swanson, he found success by working inside Cub’s wide swings and battering him on the ground. Discipline and form have allowed Edgar to rise above the more gifted hitters.

However, he has always had difficulty with low round kicks, which serve to pin him in place for a moment in front of stronger opponents. Aldo also found success against ‘The Answer’ with a thoughtful jab and pivots off-line each time he rushed in. Edgar’s next scheduled fight, against Mendes, should be fascinating as he will be in with one of the strongest wrestlers in the division, who also happens to be one of the hardest hitters. 

Unlike Frankie, Mendes starts fast and has built a career out of knocking men out in the opening round. Despite both being considered rounded boxer-wrestlers, they are near polar opposites in dynamic.

Chad Mendes: The Underachiever

It was tough to get excited for Mendes’ second crack at Aldo’s belt. He had been knocking out stiff enough men, but he didn’t seem that far removed from the wrestler with a good right hand who lost to the champ first time around. But the Team Alpha Male star’s performance in the rematch blew the doubters away as he went strike-for-strike with the champion as a complete mixed martial artist. 

Yet Mendes’ most recent bout was a million miles removed from that performance. Against McGregor, all he did was sprint forward winging right hands, and stand directly in front of Conor when he wasn’t attacking – allowing the Irishman to hammer him with linear body kicks. We can praise McGregor for his terrific kicking game and toughness, but those don’t make a man abandon the rudiments in less than a round. Granted, ‘Money’ took the fight on short notice, but a change in striking coach after Duane Ludwig’s departure from the team might also go some way to explaining his abandonment of craft. 

The staples of Mendes’ style are few but reliable. The cross counter: an overhand thrown across the top of the opponent’s jab, which is as old as the jab itself. There’s also the giving of ground to drop in on the double-leg takedown as his opponent advances after him. Finally, the level-change to uppercut, inviting the opponent to drop his own weight onto the blow. It’s a small toolbox, but against Aldo In Brazil at UFC 179, amid the counter left hooks and darts off to angles, there was clear evidence of more. And it’s that Chad Mendes who is to be feared by every man at 145lb. 

With two failed shots at Aldo’s championship belt and a loss to McGregor, defeating Edgar is Mendes’ only route to stay in contention. He has the power and the skills to best both Aldo and McGregor on the right night, but if he loses to the craftier Edgar he may never get another chance to try and prove it.

Jose Aldo: The Absentee King

Aldo’s featherweight title reign was turning into a series of foregone conclusions. Chan Sung Jung gave a brave showing against the long-time champion but was never really in the game. When it was Ricardo Lamas’ turn, the grappler was reduced to flat-out timidity while the champ shellacked him with combinations ending in low kicks. Fight by fight, Aldo was getting crisper, but his finishing rate was dropping off. 

Then came the second match with Mendes in October last year. In the first round, a crisp counter left hook dropped the champion on his butt. For the first time in years, Aldo was in a real fight. Not dropping rounds, but in with a man who was trying to take his head off. Rallying behind the pairing of his jab and lead hook, Aldo was able to escape with a hard-fought decision. But his pride and his image had been badly bruised. 

With Aldo’s original fight against McGregor postponed by injury, the champion is being questioned in every quarter. Has he been fighting safe? Is he past his sell-by date? Why can’t he finish opponents anymore?

The secret of Aldo’s game is that while he is a knockout artist, he’s not a striker from a traditional template. He’s an anti-wrestler; perhaps the best one in MMA’s brief history. His finest finishes have come from punishing the level change from fighters attempting to take him down. From the knees and switch knees, which Aldo pounded into the guts of his opponents in WEC as they advanced on him, to the long, low uppercut that flattened Manny Gamburyan after he ducked under a feigned jab. 

Against opponents who are more interested in engaging him on the feet, Aldo is more limited to Dutch-style combinations of flurried punches to set up a pounding low kick. As a counter fighter, Aldo highlights the importance of countering in combination to improve the odds of landing.

Aldo’s takedown defense is impeccable. Two parts wrestling and two parts boxing, his greatest defense is not being there. He uses pivots around his front foot to rapidly turn off the opponent’s line of attack when they rush him. When an opponent does get in a shot on Aldo’s hips, he widens his base and forces them to pick up the front leg rather than attacking both – ‘feeding the single.’ Aldo will move to the fence and lean while prying himself free, or simply push the opponent down his leg like he’s slipping off a garter. 

Having edged Edgar almost three years ago, and only scraped by Mendes in their most recent meeting, it’s safe to say the division is catching up with the long-time champion. In McGregor, Aldo faces the kind of fighter that has previously troubled him – the polished, faster striker. Edgar, Mendes, and even Chan Sung Jung had success on the feet against the Brazilian as he’s often reluctant to take the fight to the ground – even with his tremendous grappling pedigree. Aldo’s pride might very well hurt him should McGregor begin to have success with his kickboxing.

The featherweight division is stronger than it’s ever been and the outcomes couldn’t be more uncertain. But uncertainty has always made for the greatest fights. Long live the kings!