Jose Aldo defeated Manny Gamburyan by TKO on Thursday, September 30, at WEC 51 to retain his featherweight title. Aldo, a huge favorite coming into this fight, proved his worth as a champion by quickly dismantling Gamburyan in the second round with lightning-quick strikes.
Round one started off with Gamburyan throwing a big right hand that appeared to briefly stagger Aldo, throwing him back into the cage. Aldo quickly recovered and exchanged with Gamburyan, throwing a number of his trademark leg kicks. Gamburyan and Aldo continued to exchange punches for the remainder of the round, with each fighter landing solid combinations.
As the second round started, Aldo appeared to have a renewed determination toward ending the fight quickly. He came out and exchanged with Gamburyan but also pressed the pace and threw a number of lightning-fast leg kicks. Just after the one minute mark Aldo caught Gamburyan with a strong right hand, knocking him to the canvas. Aldo quickly smelled blood and jumped on top of Gamburyan, raining down fast, powerful strikes. Gamburyan tried to turn his head in order to protect himself but Aldo was able to snake punches underneath his arms. Gamburyan was quickly knocked out and the referee stepped in to stop the bout.
This fight marks Aldo’s second successful title defense and his eighth straight win in the WEC. In addition to these already impressive statistics, seven of his eight wins in the WEC came by way of KO or TKO, with the only decision going to Urijah Faber, an extremely tough opponent and former champion. Although Aldo is far from having cleaned out the WEC featherweight division, he’s definitely on his way to accomplishing great things in the sport of mixed martial arts.
Aldo retains his title and improves to 18-1 while Gamburyan falls to 11-5.
Tags: Featherweight, WEC
