Champ Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes II Headlines UFC 176 in Los Angeles

[Swinny]

Champ Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes II headlines UFC 176 in Los Angeles

Chad Mendes (16-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC) will get his second shot at UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo (24-1 MMA, 6-0 UFC) in this summer’s UFC 176 headliner.

The event takes place Aug. 2 at Los Angeles’ Staples Center, and the main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.

The UFC announced the fight on Sunday following an initial report from latimes.com.

Los Angeles and the Staples Center most recently hosted a UFC event in August 2012, when Mauricio “Shogunâ€￾ Rua knocked out Brandon Vera in UFC on FOX 4′s headliner.

Aldo, who’s ranked No. 1 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA featherweight rankings (and No. 2 pound-for-pound), knocked out Mendes, who’s ranked No. 2 at 145 pounds, at UFC 142 in January 2012. Aldo defended his title via first-round knockout from a knee strike, though the champ benefited from a cage-grab just prior to the fight-ending blow.

Mendes has been anxious for a rematch ever since. The 29-year-old Team Alpha Male fighter has won five straight fights (four via knockout) since the title loss while defeating the likes of Darren Elkins and Clay Guida. Most recently, he scored a decision victory over scrappy Nik Lentz at UFC on FOX 9 in December.

Aldo, meanwhile, has won 17 straight fights, most of which have come during his UFC and WEC tenure, while racking up eight consecutive title defenses (six of which have officially come in the UFC). Most recently, the 27-year-old Nova Uniao fighter scored a unanimous-decision victory over Ricardo Lamas in February.

MMAJunkie

 

[The Great Cochrane]

As much as I love Chad Mendes his chances in this one don't look too good.

Team Alpha Male members have a tendency to dominate non title fights, than get complete octagon jitters for the title fights themselves.

Look at Faber & Benavidez for instance.

 

[Swinny]

He definitely has the best chance out of any of them to actually win a title though, I think.

The last fight was marred by Aldo's cage grabbing and all that so if that doesn't happen, or he actually gets warned and possibly deducted a point for it, and he manages to take down Aldo like he wants, Aldo could be in trouble.

As long as Chad's cardio is up to par, it left a bit to be desired in the last fight but he was sick apparently, he could definitely drag Aldo into deep waters and give him trouble.

 

[The Great Cochrane]

I still don't see it happening.

And besides it's not like Aldo is an amateur scrub, he's nuts and a 9 time (as of this fight) defending champ for a reason.

 

[Swinny]

Well clearly, I'm not saying Mendes is going to run through him, I just think Mendes can be a bad match-up for him, especially the longer he makes it through the fight.