Jose Aldo made a bold change to his training regimen in final years of UFC career

Former UFC featherweight champ Jose Aldo is considered one of the best fighters in MMA history. One of the many skills that made him so good was his takedown defense. The Brazilian was renowned for his ability to negate his opponents’ wrestling, and famously stopped 16 of 16 takedown attempts from reigning bantamweight champ Merab Dvalishvili when they fought.

That’s pretty impressive, considering how little he actually practiced wrestling at the time.

During a recent interview with MMA Hoje, the former UFC champ claimed that he did not train wrestling at all for the final five years of his career.

He didn’t specify why he made this dramatic change to his training, but it’s remarkable his skills held up without practice.

Jose Aldo reveals he stopped training wrestling for final UFC fights

“I haven’t done any wrestling training in five years,” Aldo said (via MMA Mania). “Nowadays, people always bring me up when they talk about what’s his name—the champion, the Georgian champion. Merab. People say, ‘Oh, you stuffed all 16 of his takedown attempts! He’s like a wrestling professor, a Naruto of grappling.’ Bro, I haven’t trained wrestling at all.

“The defense I have is something I drilled years ago, and it still works. They compare me to American wrestlers, and I don’t even train wrestling, while they’ve been doing it all their lives. I’m just a jiu-jitsu guy who became a striker.”

While Aldo spent the best years of his MMA career in the featherweight division, he closed out his career in the UFC bantamweight division. He had some solid wins in the division, notably beating Marlon Vera, Pedro Munhoz, and Rob Font. However, he lost close fights to two rising contenders in his last two fights. First, he lost a decision to Mario Bautista—another fight where he showed off his takedown defense. He then lost a decision to Aiemann Zahabi at UFC 316 last month. He retired in the Octagon after the fact.