PBP Commentary

Coming up we have a bantamweight MMA rules bout between Jose Aldo (ranked 0 p4p, 0 weight class) and Fernando Balestra (ranked 0 p4p, 0 weight class). Chooooooooon! I think Aldo might be my favorite fighter, now he's come out to Run this town-rihhana. Both fighters look fresh as a daisy as they make their way towards the cage.

Aldo
vs
Balestra

170 cm
22
145 lbs
2 - 7 - 0

177 cm
27
135 lbs
4 - 3 - 0

BJJ Blue Belt
Good kicks
Experienced

BJJ Brown Belt
Brawler
Knockout power

Ladies and gentlemen. This fight is 3 rounds, in the bantamweight division.
Introducing the fighter to my left, fighting out of the red corner.
With a record of 2 - 7 - 0, fighting out of Rio de Janeiro, Jose Aldo!
And introducing the fighter to my right, fighting out of the blue corner.
With a record of 4 - 3 - 0, fighting out of Rio de Janeiro, Fernando Balestra!
The judges for this bout are Emerson Jorge, Thiago Cunha and Alexandre Firmino.

The bell rings for round one and we are underway!
Aldo throws a head kick but Balestra moves out of range.

Balestra clinches up against the cage.
Balestra tries to break the clinch but Aldo is controlling the position.

Balestra gets double underhooks and manages to take the fight to the ground.
Balestra controlling from the guard. I say controlling but really, he's stalling.
Balestra stops Aldo from standing up.
Balestra is intent on slowing down the pace of the fight, simply looking to control.
Balestra forces his way into half guard.
Balestra sitting and controlling from the half guard.
Balestra's corner are shouting for him to control the position and he seems happy to oblige.

Fernando Balestra has forced the referee to step in and restart the fight on the feet.

Balestra forces Aldo back against the cage and clinches.
The crowd cheering loudly, showing their appreciation for the quality fight we're seeing here.
Balestra dodges an elbow strike from Aldo.

That's one minute gone in the round.

Balestra manages to pull guard. Let's see whether he can land a sub off his back.

Balestra uses the cage to get back to his feet.
Aldo misses with a jab, cross combination.

Balestra shoots in and bounces Aldo off the cage to secure the takedown into guard.
The ref warns both fighters not to hold the cage as they work up against the meshing.
Balestra is frustrating his opponent with some stalling tactics from top position.
Aldo is looking to stand up but Balestra isn't so interested in that idea.
Balestra controls from within his opponent's guard.

Balestra gets to his feet. Aldo looking to butt scoot but the ref puts an end to that. On your feet son!

That's two minutes gone in the round.
Aldo misses with the combination.
Balestra throws a jab to the body, straight down the pipe. Boom. That sent Aldo stumbling backwards but he manages to regain his composure quickly.
We've seen a great period of action over the last minute or so - credit to both fighters for going all out!
Aldo wants to clinch.
Balestra fails to land with the punch combination there - jab, cross, hook, miss, miss, miss.
Aldo tries a head kick but it misses.

Balestra closes the distance and pushes Aldo back into the cage.
Balestra dodges an elbow strike from Aldo.
Balestra blocks an elbow strike from Aldo.
Balestra effectively controlling the action here.
Balestra dodges an elbow strike from Aldo.
Balestra slows down the pace here.

That's three minutes gone in the round.

Balestra gets double underhooks and manages to take the fight to the ground.
Balestra slows down the pace of the fight for a moment. He'll need to remain active if he doesn't want to see the fight stood back up.
Aldo knows he needs to get back to his feet asap. He's simply no match for Balestra on the ground.
We may be looking at a referee standup if the pace doesn't pick up soon.

The ref calls for a clean break and stands the fighters back up. Fernando Balestra wasn't active enough on the ground.
Aldo lands a head kick!

Balestra is rocked!

Aldo clinches up with Balestra and pushes him back against the cage.

That's four minutes gone in the round.
Balestra dodges an elbow strike from Aldo.
This is a great period of action - very entertaining stuff!
Aldo looks to throw an elbow but misses.
Balestra wants to get back to striking at distance but Aldo won't allow it.
Aldo has Balestra pressed against the cage, preventing Balestra from circling away and getting back to striking at range.
Balestra takes an elbow to the forehead.

Balestra gets double underhooks and manages to take the fight to the ground.

Balestra decides to stand up and beckons his opponent to follow.
Balestra throws a series of punches but Aldo avoids them all with ease.
Aldo takes a kick to the side of the head.
Balestra looks winded!
Aldo tries to close the distance and clinch up but Balestra swats him away and circles back towards the center.
Aldo fails with an attempt to clinch.
The crowd are going absolutely nuts as the round comes to an end - what a fantastic round of action!
Balestra fails with a takedown attempt.
Aldo closes the distance but Balestra moves to the side

and Balestra holds on and brings the fighters into a clinch.
Balestra fails to pull guard.
And that’s the end of the round – the fighters go back to their corners.

Fernando Balestra dominated that round.
The referee calls time. The cornermen exit stage left and we're back to business.

Balestra closes the distance and presses his opponent up against the cage.
Balestra stalling the fight.
Balestra receives a warning from the referee for stalling.
Aldo lands an elbow inside that Balestra shrugs off.
Balestra keeps the fight in the clinch, despite Aldo's efforts to push away.
Aldo is trying to work out of this bad position, with his back against the cage.

Balestra lands a takedown into guard.
Balestra pushes down on Aldo's leg and manages to get into half guard.
Balestra takes a deep breath and rests his weight momentarily on top of his opponent, to control the position.

Balestra is working for submissions here but there's nothing on.
Balestra keeping composed on the top, looking to control the action.
Aldo is looking to get back to is feet but Balestra passes into side control.
This has been an exciting period of action!
Balestra lands a nice forearm strike.
Balestra scores with punches from side control.

That's one minute gone in the round.
Balestra creates a bit of distance and throws down some hard shots.
Balestra is a painfully thin specimen of a man. You do wonder whether a good body kick would snap him clean in two.

Balestra stands up and we're back to a striking position.
Aldo rushes Balestra with punches - Balestra moves straight backwards instead of circling and gets clipped by the second strike... and the third... and the fourth! Oh, Balestra goes down! Aldo follows up with more strikes and the ref steps in to end the bout!

Ladies and gentlemen, after 1:15 of round 2, we have a winner by way of TKO (Strikes). Jose Aldo!
Jose Aldo opened up his post fight interview with a scream to camera that he wants a title shot! Whether he deserves the shot will be up to the management of the organization, so I guess he'll have to wait and see.