Let’s not heap too much praise on Jose Aldo

Am I the only one who wasn’t completely blown away by Jose Aldo’s victory over featherweight champ Mike Brown at Wednesday’s WEC 44? Yes, Aldo has lightning strikes – at times it looked like he was on fast forward and Brown was on rewind – and his takedown defense against the strongest fighter in the division was impressive.

But the first round was nothing to write home about. It was mostly a feeling-out process for both fighters highlighted by a couple of Aldo’s flying knees that looked cool but did little damage. And the second-round TKO seemed to be more the result of Brown crumpling under pressure and giving up than Aldo destroying him (it’s easy to destroy someone who’s not really fighting back).

I’m not taking anything away from Aldo; he took Brown’s back, sunk in the hooks, flattened him out and pounded on his skull until the ref stepped in. He deserved the win and he did it in dominant fashion. I’m just not prepared to hoist him upon my shoulders as the new king of MMA and declare that we should expect a long and prosperous reign. That’s a trigger I’m not ready to pull.

Let’s see how he handles the pressure of being champion. Let’s see how he handles former champ Urijah Faber. Brown beat Faber. Aldo beat Brown. And if this was rock-paper-scissors we all know what comes next. Of course Faber needs to get past Raphael Assuncao first and Aldo will likely next face Manny Gamburyan.

In other main card results, Gamburyan earned a unanimous decision over fellow mighty mite Leonard Garcia that was like watching Randy Couture vs. Brandon Vera through a microscope; Karen Darabedyan out-struck five time World Muay Thai champion Rob McCullough to take a split decision; Shane Roller submitted Danny Castillo by rear-naked choke to end a back-and-forth battle in the third round.