UFC 153: Aldo Vs. Edgar – A Super Fight That Was Meant To Happen… Now We’ve Got It!

The UFC Featherweight Championship will be on the line at UFC 153 as Jose Aldo will defend his title against Frankie Edgar. The former UFC Lightweight Champion Edgar steps in for an injured Erik Koch and will make his featherweight debut against the hometown hero Aldo.

UFC 153 takes place at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 13, 2012. This marks the fifth time that the promotion has visited the South American nation.

This scrap has been billed as a super fight consisting of two fighters who have been considered by many as two of the best fighters on the planet in their respective weight classes and have already had historical performances in the Octagon.

This has been a long-awaited move for Edgar to drop down to featherweight from his habitual lightweight class. As an undersized lightweight, Edgar shocked the world by defeating B.J. Penn for the lightweight championship in Abu Dhabi at UFC 112 and then again in the rematch at UFC 118, which proved to be a more dominant performance. After back-to-back scraps with both Gray Maynard and Benson Henderson, Edgar won only once out of four championship fights and found himself at the back of the line at lightweight after losing two very close and questionable decisions against the current champion (Henderson). After Dana White and other media outlets called for Edgar to move down in weight, the New Jersey native finally did so and will now face the toughest test of his career against the 26-year-old phenom, Aldo. This will be Edgar’s fifth title fight in a row.

Jose Aldo was the first UFC featherweight champion and has been undefeated since 2005, boasting an incredible 14-fight win streak. Viewed by various pundits as the best fighter in the world, Aldo inherited the UFC featherweight championship after the promotion brought over the lower-weight class fighters from the WEC. After Aldo dismantled Manny Gamburyan in his last WEC fight in 2010, Aldo made his UFC debut, defeating Mark Hominick at UFC 129 in Toronto. Since beating the Canadian Hominick on his home turf, Aldo battered Kenny Florian and delivered a potential knockout of the year to Chad Mendes in the very same arena he will do battle with Edgar. This will be Aldo’s fourth consecutive title defense.

Both fighters have proved to be exciting fighters and they should not disappoint at UFC 153. Aldo and Edgar are no strangers in going the distance, and both have freakishly good cardio (especially Edgar). It will be interesting to see how the weight cut affects Edgar and if his speed, accuracy and his endurance in the fight will be questioned beforehand. It will also be interesting to see how Aldo approaches the fight and if he will utilize his leg-kicks and his standup game as frequently as he has in his previous fights. Should the fight go to the ground, fans will be in for a real treat, as they will witness a battle between a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and an NCAA Division 1 All-American wrestler (not to mention a brown belt in BJJ for Edgar as well).

Before the fight was announced, Aldo had heard rummages of Edgar dropping to featherweight. In an interview with Brazilian-based Tatame.com, Aldo welcomed Edgar with a harsh warning:

“He said he wants to drop to featherweight, so I’m hoping he does that to end this story… He’s welcome here so that we can shut him off and he goes to the lightweight or bantamweight classes.”

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