Jose Aldo's Face Was Unrecognisable After UFC 218 Defeat To Max Holloway

Having won 18 consecutive fights between May 2006 and October 2014, Jose Aldo has now lost three of his last four UFC bouts and his latest defeat, to Max Holloway at UFC 218 on Saturday night, may have been the most brutal and emphatic beating of the Brazilian icon's career inside the octagon.

Aldo was looking to avenge his loss to Holloway at UFC 212 back in June, when the Hawaiian lightweight dealt the 31-year-old a third round TKO loss in Rio de Janeiro. However, the former UFC Lightweight champion could not regain his title in Detroit over the weekend, with Holloway once again dealing him a knockout loss in the third round.

And this time round, Holloway's destruction of his Brazilian opponent may just have been the most brutal beating Aldo has ever taken in UFC.

UFC President Dana White labelled Holloway's performance as 'badass', saying in a post-show interview, "Incredible. The way he fought tonight, the way he walked him down, tried to break him mentally and physically was incredible.

"He looked like a stud tonight and was willing to put himself in harm's way. He got hit with some big shots he didn't need to get hit with either, just to prove that he could walk through him. It was badass."

Although given the state of Aldo's face after the show, it's probably fair to say that White's 'badass' assessment was actually a monumental understatement.

Jose Aldo

Image: csfights

Despite having spent more than 10 minutes decimating Aldo, Holloway was full of praise for the former champion in his post-fight interview.

"People ask what this makes me. It makes me a guy with two wins over Aldo and I got a bunch more to catch up to him. He's the greatest of all time. He got seven, eight title defences. I've got to catch up. Numbers don't lie. Women lie, men lie, but numbers don't lie. I've only got one defence. I've got a bunch of catching up to do. He's still the GOAT, I still respect him and I'm coming for that record, though."

The successful title defence now takes Holloway to a 19-3 career record, with the Lightweight champion now undefeated since his 2013 loss to Conor McGregor at UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs. Sonnen - a streak that has now been stretched to 12 consecutive victories. Could we see the Blessed one take on Notorious inside the octagon sometime soon?

(H/T CS Fights)

Topics: UFC News, Max Holloway, UFC, jose aldo, MMA

Joe Baiamonte

Northerner. Assistant Editor of SPORTbible. Studied Journalism and Broadcasting in a portakabin on a car park of Salford University for three years. Believes football peaked with Serie A in the '90s and strong-arms pro wrestling references into as many articles as possible. Neymar once took 50 euros off me during a game of poker.

@JoeBaia