For anyone who has followed the game long enough, there’s a tinge of sadness to seeing Jose Aldo on this weekend’s UFC 315 card, and not just because he had a hard time whittling his form down to 135 pounds for his fight with Aiemann Zahabi. It’s more because he’s fighting Zahabi at all. Shouldn’t the original Lord of the Flies be paired against a fellow twilight idol? Some name that checks a box for his legacy, which just keeps stretching off into weirder and weirder ways like so much taffy?
Ordinary fighters can be found chasing greatness at the end of their careers.