This past Saturday on the main card of UFC 307, we saw a big time matchup in the bantamweight division. Former featherweight champion Jose Aldo (32-9) returned and he was looking to pickup his second win of the year against Mario Bautista (15-2) who was looking to win his seventh fight in a row.
In the first round of their fight on Saturday night, Aldo really wasn’t able to get off much offense. Bautista was in his face with volume strikes and he really tried getting the fight to the ground. However, Aldo was able to keep the fight standing, but he couldn’t land much. After one, I had Bautista up.
In the second round, Aldo busted Bautista up with strikes on the feet and really had Bautista on the ropes. Bautista did have moments of control where he had Aldo against the fence, but I had the second round going to Jose Aldo. The third round is where it got weird.
There was very limited striking in the third round. When they did strike which was a small portion of the round, Aldo clearly got the better of a retreating Bautista. Bautista desperately shot for takedowns over and over. He would push Aldo against the fence and do nothing with the position. When the referee separated them, he went right back in on a takedown attempt.
Because Bautista did no damage and wasn’t doing anything to work towards a finish, I gave the final round to the former UFC champion because he did the most damage in the final round. However, two of the judges disagreed and gave the fight to Mario Bautista by split decision.
What’s next after UFC 307?
Jose Aldo was calling for a fight against Sean O’Malley and he wanted to make another run towards the title. I think he’s furious that he didn’t win this decision and if he’s going to keep fighting in the UFC, I think he’ll try to get back in there sooner rather than later.
This was the final fight on his contract, but for the sake of this, let’s say he keeps going. Who should he face? I think he should face a former champion in his next fight. The fight to make in my opinion is Dominick Cruz. This was the fight the UFC originally wanted to do for Aldo’s return but it fell through. Now, it seems like there’s never been a better opportunity to book this matchup of legends.