‘He chose to stay there’… Mario Bautista breaks his silence on controversial Jose Aldo fight at UFC 307
Despite getting his hand raised in the biggest fight of his life against one of the most legendary fighters in UFC history, bantamweight contender Mario Bautista has found himself on the receiving end of severe backlash from the MMA community.
The controversy surrounding that UFC 307 bout comes down to what many fans are calling the ‘Wall and Stall’ strategy, with the 15-2 American repeatedly putting himself into dominant positions along the fence but failing to land a single takedown on 10 attempts.
Mario Bautista opens up on controversial split decision win over Jose Aldo
Following his decision win over Jose Aldo, UFC bantamweight prospect Mario Bautista found himself embroiled in a bitter debate online; with some fans arguing that he wasn’t trying to win the contest at all, whilst others stated that he simply employed the most optimal path to victory.
Speaking with MMA Junkie, Bautista has now broken his silence regarding the fight and even partially blamed Jose Aldo for how the contest played out as he explained his strategy.
“I just wanted him to keep on working, I just wanted him to use that energy to break out and then just kind of stay stuck to him; just keep him working, working, working but I didn’t really think he was going to stay on the wall.
“I thought that he was going to get out, there were points I felt he was defending the takedown and could’ve circled off but he kind of just chose to stay there and wait a little bit… I was holding him against the cage but at the time same time, I think he did have the opportunities to circle off, it’s just he chose not to.”
Considering that Aldo is well-known for his outstanding takedown defense, Bautista argued that the reason why the iconic ‘King of Rio’ failed to escape his hold could’ve simply been because that was also, and rather strangely, part of Aldo’s game plan.
“I don’t know if that was part of the strategy on his part, maybe that’s like his resting area where he feels like ‘Okay, Imma rest up and the ref will separate us and then I’ll be able to get my strikes off’.”
Whilst the MMA Lab alumni acknowledged that there is indeed a strong desire from the global fanbase to see fights end in a finish, if he was watching the bout as a fan of Jose Aldo – he’d be frustrated with the Brazilian, and not him.
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“But looking at it from a fans’ perspective, I’m not yelling at me, I’m yelling ‘Aldo, circle off the cage, what are you doing?’ That’s what I tell my fighters if they’re stuck on the cage.
“That’s something that I’ve learned before the UFC, if I ever got stuck on the cage in sparring or anything, it’s not like ‘Oh man whoever’s holding you against the cage’ – No, like I need to handle that situation, circle off and get to where I want to be so that I can start winning the fight.”
When asked whether he’d change his strategy if he was ever to rematch Aldo, Bautista would somewhat ironically claim that he would ‘tweak’ the gameplan; but would go back to the fence if he was in trouble.
“If I was to fight Aldo again, then I’d definitely tweak it up a little bit, kind of break away a little bit myself and get him back to that spot if I had to – a little bit more clinch work, this and that, like I said I just didn’t really expect him to stay on the cage.
“I know that Dana is upset, and I know what kind of fights he likes too so like I said, it’s all experience – I’ll take what I can for this fight and go into the next one understanding what everyone’s thinking.”
At the end of the day, a win’s a win and following victory at UFC 307, Bautista improved his spot in the bantamweight rankings by moving into the #8 position – Jose Aldo dropped to #11.
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