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Legendary coach Winklejohn offers exclusive insight into Aldo-Frankie
SI.com sat watched Saturday night's featherweight title bout between champion José Aldo and former lightweight titleholder Frankie Edgar alongside famed MMA coach Mike Winkeljohn of Jackson/Winkeljohn's MMA in Albuquerque, N.M. Winkeljohn offered SI.com readers exclusive insight-round by into what MMA professionals look for in a fight.
BEFORE THE FIGHT: I'm looking for who can control the distance, who can control the space. Edgar picking his shots and punches and Aldo trying to be in range for his explosive techniques.
ROUND 1 OBSRVATIONS: Aldo looks so much bigger than Edgar. Aldo is trying to wait for him to close the gap and take advantage of that situation. Edgar was getting Aldo on his heels and Aldo can't counter. That was a tough round to call. Frankie threw more technique, but Aldo was throwing more power strikes. Aldo definitely looks to be the stronger of the two with one very hard leg kick in there. The leg kick pays dividends down the road because it causes so much muscle tissue damage. The leg starts to swell and it's harder to move on and shoot off and use later in the fight.
ROUND 2 OBSERVATIONS: Aldo definitely got the bigger power shots in but Frankie did take him down for a second. He caught the leg kick and struck him back [Frankie should] move to his right to avoid walking into the leg kick. [Aldo should] step to his left, to try to corral Frankie ... so as soon as he steps back, the leg kick will be there.
ROUND 3 OBSERVATIONS: Frankie started controlling the space, started backing up Aldo and was successful when he did and Aldo started respecting his fakes and feints. Aldo is still scary with this power.
ROUND 4 OBSERVATIONS: Frankie is like he has a big magazine in his .22 [caliber] and Aldo has a few shots in his .44. It's Aldo loading, trying to land the big shot and conserve his energy. Frankie is trying to stick-and-move and not run into the big strike. Frankie getting the takedown was definitely a good scoring position for him which I think cemented the round for him.
ROUND 5 OBSERVATIONS: Frankie got that last round. Aldo got a couple of big punches in, but Frankie had so many punches. Aldo definitely showed and Frankie showed his fantastic conditioning and he was able to throw more technique at Aldo but Aldo definitely has a power edge. It always comes down to what the judges like. I believe Frankie won the round.
END OF FIGHT OBSERVATIONS: Aldo definitely had more power. He looked like the bigger, stronger, more explosive fighter. But Frankie came with a game plan to take the fight long and pick him apart and stretch the fight out and that's what he didn't. Now, it depends on the judges if they like the guy who throws the power punches or the guy who controls the space and sticks and moves. This becomes an Ali-Frazier situation.
NOTE: The judges' scores were 49-46, 49-46 and 48-47 in favor of Aldo.
Staff Writer, Sports Illustrated Staff writer Melissa Segura made an immediate impression at Sports Illustrated. As an undergraduate intern in 2001, her reporting helped reveal that Danny Almonte, star of the Little League World Series, was 14, two years older than the maximum age allowed in Little League. Segura has since covered a range of sports for SI, from baseball to mixed martial arts, with a keen eye on how the games we play affect the lives we lead. In a Sept. 10, 2012, cover story titled, The Other Half of the Story, Segura chronicled the plight of NFL wives and girlfriends caring for brain-injured players. In 2009 she broke the story that MLB had discovered that Washington Nationals prospect Esmailyn Gonzalez, who had been signed to a team-record $1.4 million bonus in 2006, was really Carlos Alvarez and he was four years older than he had claimed to be. Segura graduated with honors from Santa Clara University in 2001 with a B.A. in Spanish studies and communications (with an emphasis in journalism). In 2011, she studied immigration issues as a New York Times fellow at UC-Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. Before joining SI full-time in 2002, she worked for The Santa Fe New Mexican and covered high school sports for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.). Segura says Gary Smith is the SI staffer she would most want to trade places with for a day. "While most noted for his writing style, having worked alongside Gary, I've come to realize he is an even more brilliant reporter than he is a writer."