Why was Aldo incapable of clean knockouts?

[Portland8242]

one of the finest left hooks to the body ive ever seen landed in MMA. scooped that hook up like he was Micky fuckin Ward
damn, my stomach hurts just looking at this gif

Remember one of my old boxing coaches from way back in the day said to get insane torque on those body punches, you almost have to bend your back at almost a 45 degree angle to really load some power in them. Looks like Aldo did exactly that, it's like he almost leaped into the punch.

 

[GolovKing]

Dude Cub Swanson is the definition of looping arm punches. At least when Jose Aldo flurried, you can see him putting his hips into each punch:

That's some Joe calzaghe type technique bro. When Aldo would throw his hooks he wouldn't line up his fist with his elbow and shoulder. You can ko or drop guys like that, which Aldo has done before but it's far from optimal. It's more a way you punch if you want to throw for speed and volume. Cub was mostly koing guys with long overhand type punches. That's not a weak punch.

Also that guy is completely balled up in a defensive posture, it's a lot harder to ko a guy clean when they are like vs someone who's swinging wildly and not seeing punches coming like gaethje against Max. None of those punches were really landing accurately by Aldo. He was trying to swarm the guy

 

[Fatback96]

People forget he hurt Max Holloway I’m their first fight.

 

[ticho123]

When you look at the very top guys you have to account for some selection bias. Like Robert Whittaker gets called pillow-fisted from time to time, and although he might not be the hardest puncher he's certainly able to put guys out. It's more that the fighters he's facing are guys at the top of the sport who very rarely get finished. Aldo too has been a top guy for a long, long time. If he'd spent more time facing prelim level opponents you can bet he'd have many more knockouts.

 

[ipowerslapmywife]

He didn’t really have power, his KOs came from knees or a liver shot

 

[ipowerslapmywife]

Don't get me wrong, he's an extremely athletic and explosive guy. That just makes it more of a mystery why he doesn't knock anyone out cold when other less explosive fighters do.

I mean the fact that two of the fights you listed are standing TKOs. Stephens is a liver shot which doesn't require power to drop someone, and Manny is from ground and pound.

Athletic and fast doesn’t = KO power. Plenty of athletic guys don’t have KO power

 

[ipowerslapmywife]

Benson wasn’t pillow fisted either? He just wasn’t a good boxer…

Benson lacked power

 

[ipowerslapmywife]

Benson Henderson dropped people too but he couldn't put them away. People call Bendo pillowfisted because he was so athletic and yet wasn't KOing anybody.

I think Aldo, as you said, had solid power but based on how explosive and technical he was it feels like he should have been a KO machine like Topuria or O'Malley where they can put someone's lights out with a good combo.

Bendo is fit and flexible but he was never fast or explosive

 

[achoo42]

When you look at the very top guys you have to account for some selection bias. Like Robert Whittaker gets called pillow-fisted from time to time, and although he might not be the hardest puncher he's certainly able to put guys out. It's more that the fighters he's facing are guys at the top of the sport who very rarely get finished. Aldo too has been a top guy for a long, long time. If he'd spent more time facing prelim level opponents you can bet he'd have many more knockouts.

Jose Aldo didn't knock anyone out cold with his fists in his entire career. Not just during his title reign or when he was fighting ranked opponents.

That is unusual for any striker, let alone one of the best and most explosive strikers in UFC history.

 

[HHJ]

No not at all.

 

[Skarsgard]

He didn't have the touch of death or anything, but he could crack.

 

[ticho123]

Jose Aldo didn't knock anyone out cold with his fists in his entire career. Not just during his title reign or when he was fighting ranked opponents.

That is unusual for any striker, let alone one of the best and most explosive strikers in UFC history

As others have said he had a more kick and knee centric style early in his career and didn't sit down on his punches as some other fighters do. He certainly has a lot of finishes overall, it's just different. Compare Anderson to Henderson and the kind of punches they threw, naturally Henderson will have more fights where he just sleeps someone. Doesn't mean Anderson was pillow-fisted.

I honestly don't think there's much of a mystery here, but for arguments sake what do you call his finish of Manny Gamburyan if not a KO by punches?

 

[El Fernas]

He wasn' the hardest hitter, but he did put one of the hardest hits on one of the hardest hitters on 145

Didnt he stopped Moicano with a liver shot too? Not sure when he started, but he used to train with Robert Garcia, a known boxing coach.

 

[jeff7b9]

145.
135.

KO rate drops drastically at lower weight classes.

Do you even math bro?

 

[VinceArch]

Aldo might not have been dropping people with one shot every single time but to say he was pillowfisted also isn't true. He snapped heads back so many times.

 

[CasualBot]

Take his punch and find out

 

[Dr. Rose]

Definitely not pillow fisted, but in his younger years even during what you would call his prime he lacked technique which certainly took away from some of his power. Later in his career was when he transformed his self into more of a boxer and he started hurting more guys with punches, including Holloway who has one of the best chins in the sport's history

I don't think he "lacked" anything. He fought in a traditional Muay Thai style which does not emphasis ko's with the hands, but prefer knees and elbows. Harder and less fragile bones than the hands, allowing them to fight with a greater frequency.

 

[GolovKing]

I don't think he "lacked" anything. He fought in a traditional Muay Thai style which does not emphasis ko's with the hands, but prefer knees and elbows. Harder and less fragile bones than the hands, allowing them to fight with a greater frequency.

They don't teach you to throw punches like he did in Muay thai. That's just his own style that he liked to throw with. He doesn't have a traditional Muay thai style anyways, he fights using a Brazilian Muay thai style that he adapted to mma. The closest you'll see to traditional Muay thai in MMA is loma lookbonmee or some of the Thais who occasionally take part in MMA fights in one, but even they all adapt their style to work in MMA

 

[moreorless87]

He was technically stronger but I always felt Aldo was a little like JDS in that he was most effective with time and space at a certain distance.

 

[TR1]

All manlets are pillow fisted compared to normal sized human beings.