http://mmajunkie.com/news/25482/ufc-champ-jose-aldo-knows-featherweight-division-wont-be-a-permanent-home.mmaThere will be a time when the UFC featherweight champ's kidneys say, "No way, Jose."
A recent video documenting Jose Aldo's weight-cut for UFC 129 is proof positive.
The 25-year-old is misery incarnate as he attempts to shed the final ounces for the 145-pound limit. At one point, he refuses to get back into a bathtub containing a chemical that aids the process but creates a burning sensation on his skin.
Of course, he cuts the pounds. What's he going to do? Not make weight?
Aldo recently pointed to a weight regimen designed to pack on quality muscle mass as the cause for the battle with the scale. But he admitted a time is coming when his growing frame will no longer support the demands he must put on it to fight in the featherweight class.
When that is, he's not sure.
"Since I started training martial arts, back from my jiu-jitsu days, I've always been cutting a lot of weight," Aldo told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com). "I feel comfortable doing it, and definitely being young, 25 years old, helps it a lot.
"I do feel like there might come a point when all that weight-cutting takes a toll on the body, and I hope that when I reach that point I'm mature enough to be able to figure out what I have to do. I'm going to have to move up in weight."
Aldo (19-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC), who next Saturday meets Kenny Florian (15-5 MMA, 12-4 UFC) in the co-main event of UFC 136 at Houston's Toyota, said he's comfortable at the moment with his methods of making weight, and he feels healthy going into the title fight.
It's hard, though, not to see major changes on the horizon. That could include a change in his training regimen or a possible move to lightweight. He hasn't, after all, hit his athletic prime, which many believe is in the late 20s and early 30s. Fighting Mark Hominick at UFC 129, he visibly tired in later rounds and was far from the explosive terror he'd been in earlier fights.
Of course, manager Ed Soares told MMAjunkie.com the champ was also suffering from lingering injuries prior to the fight, and the weight cut couldn't have helped matters.
But as MMAjunkie.com's own Dr. Johnny Benjamin noted, even the most experienced of weight cutters faces a potentially dangerous path.
"Every long-time cutter of weight has a story of an episode that wasn't so pretty – an episode that he knows in his heart cost him," Benjamin wrote in a prior column.
"Cutting serious weight (for the sake of argument, let's say greater than eight to 10 pounds) in 24-36 hours can be dangerous – even if you've 'done it a million times' and 'know what you're doing.' Cutting serious weight, in a short 'before-the-weigh-in' time frame, is mainly a function of starvation and severe or total fluid restriction.
"Starvation and severe fluid restriction are harsh conditions for the human body. Blood and plasma volume, cardiac output, sweating/heat tolerance, energy level, glycogen (fuel) stores in the liver and skeletal muscle, explosive quickness and endurance are all negatively affected. (Not to mention your breath smells like ass, and you're cantankerous as hell.)
"We've all seen guys with a superior skill set and usually amazing cardio get dominated by a guy that isn't even in the same league. The excuse is usually that 'I had a bad night' or 'he got lucky' or 'I had nothing in my tank and gassed.' More times than not, the truth is, 'I had to cut serious weight to get on the scale.'"
Aldo likely has several years of featherweight fights to look forward to. And it's not like he's the only one who is facing severe deprivation to fight at 145 pounds. Florian began his UFC career as a middleweight and is now fighting a weight class lower than the one where he fought the bulk of his career – all for a belt that's eluded him twice at lightweight.
It's just that the demands placed on UFC athletes are greater than ever. The fight with the scale, as Aldo noted in the video (which was earlier public on YouTube but is now set to private), is just as tough as the one inside the cage.
"When cutting weight goes well, it's all wonderful," Benjamin wrote. "But when it goes wrong, you're lucky just to get defeated."
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