Jose Aldo Says There's No 'Well-Rounded' Women's Bantamweight in the UFC | MMAWeekly.com

Women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes headlines the UFC 207 pay-per-view on Dec. 30 in Las Vegas against former titleholder Ronda Rousey.  It’s Nunes’ first title defense and Rousey’s fight fight since losing the title in November 2015. 

Featherweight champion Jose Aldo will be pulling for fellow Brazilian Nunes, but thinks women’s MMA is less evolved than the men’s divisions.  In fact, he doesn’t think there’s a well-rounded fighter in the UFC women’s 135-pound weight class. 

“I think women’s MMA is based on this — I don’t see many well-rounded female athletes today, dominating all areas. You see one great boxer, one with great judo, one with great grappling skills,” he said during a recent media scrum in Brazil.  

There’s one female fighter that stands out to Aldo.  He believes strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk is a complete fighter.  Outside of “Joanna Champion,” Aldo doesn’t see a female fighter that’s a complete mixed martial artist. 

“One athlete that I think is really complete is Joanna, but I don’t see one in Ronda’s division yet. I knew that when she fought someone with great boxing, even if they don’t know how to stop takedowns, but had good movement standing, they could beat her. Or someone with great wrestling that could stop her judo, they could beat her, too. Women’s MMA, this division, is pretty much at the same level. It’s too new,” he said. 

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According to Aldo, the fight between Nunes and Rousey could go either way.  It all comes down to which one is able to put together the better game plan. 

“First of all, I think it’s a great fight. Of course, I’m Brazilian and I will cheer for Amanda,” he said.  “She has sharp boxing. If she’s able to neutralize Ronda’s judo, her takedowns, which for me is not that hard to stop, she has big chances at winning.

“Ronda is an athlete that we don’t know how she will behave because she’s coming off a loss. You can be sure that if she has a chance to get a takedown and grapple, she has a great chance at winning the fight as well. It depends on who can impose their game in the fight. Whoever does their game better will win the fight.”

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