John McCarthy says Jose Aldo is ‘that guy’ and he could beat Aljamain Sterling

John McCarthy has lauded Jose Aldo and believes that the Brazilian could beat the current UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling.

Aldo has looked revitalised recently. The former featherweight champ has put together an impressive run of three straight victories including a unanimous decision win against Rob Font earlier this month.

Now Aldo wobbles Font 😳 #UFCVegas44 pic.twitter.com/1a82j8tU5f

— UFC (@ufc) December 5, 2021

His form has earned him a #3 ranking at 135lbs. McCarthy is impressed, and believes Aldo has what it takes to beat Sterling although he thinks the King of Rio would still struggle to overcome Petr Yan in a rematch.

Speaking on his podcast Weighing In, McCarthy said:

“[Jose] Aldo is fighting at a level that you could look and say, ‘Could he beat Aljamain Sterling?’ Yeah. I’m not too sure that he can beat Petr Yan, I’m just gonna be honest about that… But Aldo is that guy. When you’re taking a look at who he’s been fighting and what he’s been doing, he’s been looking fantastic and he has been fighting the very best guys out there.” (h/t SportsKeeda)

Now 35, Aldo is not the same force that clinched featherweight world titles in both WEC and the UFC. However, the ‘King of Rio’ has shown tremendous resilience to make himself a serious title contender in a new weight class following a difficult spell in his career that began with a knockout loss to Conor McGregor in 2015.

Jose Aldo is a real legend.

— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) August 8, 2021

Aldo went on to lose five of his next eight fights following the defeat to the Irishman. In his defence, all of the guys he lost to bar Marlon Moraes were either champions or former champions in the UFC.

At the time of his loss to McGregor, Aldo was riding a remarkable 18-fight winning streak and established himself as probably the greatest featherweight of all-time. Looking back on the knockout, Joe Rogan spoke on his podcast to hail the genius of McGregor and said,

“He’s just got that freakish punch. I mean that’s just genius, he had a little bit of a cut over his right eyebrow from that punch. Look how genius this is, that’s so genius. You know what’s even more genius? He worked on the exact same thing and he mimicked what he was going to do, in the green room. There’s a video of him, Conor, Conor pretending to be Aldo and then him showing what he’s going to do and counter. He does the exact same move in the green room, knowing in the dressing room, knowing that’s going to be the fight.”

For Aldo to come back from that and have a realistic chance at winning a belt in another division is something special.

Does he have what it takes to beat Sterling or Yan and make history?