Four years of Jose Aldo vs Conor McGregor: The Notorious One solidifies his place into the history books
"Human beings in a mob
What's a mob to a king?
What's a king to a God?
What's a God to a non-believer
Who don't believe in anything?"
When you had Kanye West/Jay-Z classic and a world tour covering cities such as Rio de Janerio, Dublin, London, and Las Vegas to promote a fight, you knew you were in for something legendary and that is exactly what it was when two icons of mixed martial arts in Conor McGregor and Jose Aldo were finally locked inside the Octagon for a Featherweight showdown at UFC 194.
12 December, 2015, the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas witnessed arguably one of the greatest and yet shocking finishes to a title fight in UFC history. Having already secured gold in his last Octagon outing at UFC 194, Irishman Conor McGregor made the walk to the Octagon with just one purpose in mind and that was to knockout Brazilian Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo.
In the lead-up to the fight, McGregor had already finished-off Chad Mendes in a hard-fought win to claim the interim UFC Featherweight Championship and when he finally shifted his focus towards Aldo, 'The Notorious One' repeatedly boasted about the outcome if Aldo stood across him inside the cage.
As many would argue, McGregor, by this point, had already gotten into Aldo's head courtesy his insane trash talking and so much so, the Irishman also claimed to own Rio de Janerio and threatened to "kill anyone that wasn't fit to work" in Aldo's favela.
Undefeated in 18 professional fights, going back till 2005 and a winning stretch of 7 bouts in the UFC but come December 12, 2015, almost a decade later, Jose Aldo's career was to be turned upside down as Mystic Mac had struck once again when Conor McGregor caught the UFC Featherweight Champion with his infamous left hand within the first 13 seconds of their title fight.
“I felt when we stared down, I felt his right hand was twitching a little bit, that was a subtle tell for me. He is ready to unload that right hand, but I feel that could be a down fall for him. If he unloads that right hand I will not be there."- Conor McGregor.
As Aldo's prone body landed on the mat, the majority of the Irish fans who had taken over the MGM Grand Arena that night, along with the 6 million-plus die-hard Irish fans back home prepared for a long night of celebrations. But, as far as some of the neutrals were concerned, well they were left in total amazement with this dramatic knockout from an inevitable Conor McGregor.
After just two-and-a-half years in the UFC, this was McGregor's record-breaking fifth knockout win in the promotion, one which came quicker than Ronda Rousey's 14-second submission win over Cat Zingano and one for which he was also awarded the Performance of the Night award and also took home the UFC Featherweight Championship as well.
It was indeed to be the biggest moments of Conor McGregor's MMA career, as he became the undisputed UFC Featherweight Champion. Since then, things have certainly taken a massive turn for the Irishman as well but with McGregor now set for another epic return in early 2020, could we finally witness the re-emergence of 'The Notorious One', who once set fire to the MMA World with his jaw-dropping predictions and devastating knockouts? Come January 18, we shall find out.