Mario Bautista believes he shouldn’t be blamed entirely for his lackluster win over Jose Aldo at UFC 307.
Bautista (15-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) defeated Aldo by split decision in Saturday’s main card at Salt Lake City – a performance that was heavily criticized. Bautista found success on the feet early but resorted to grappling after he admittedly got rocked in Round 2.
Bautista was accused of stalling when he couldn’t get Aldo (32-9 MMA, 14-8 UFC) down, but the 31-year-old rising contender said UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili did the same thing when he fought Aldo. Dvalishvili went 0-16 in his takedown attempts vs. Aldo but won the fight by unanimous decision.
“Merab did the same thing. He probably held him against the cage longer than I did, and now look at him. He’s the champ,” Bautista told MMA Junkie Radio. “If we’re actually talking about Aldo, he almost did a similar thing against ‘Chito’ (Vera).
“He started losing that first round, and then he takes ‘Chito’ down and stays on his back for the whole second round and the whole third round, and no one gave crap to Aldo about it. Even me, I’m not going to give crap to Aldo. It’s more on ‘Chito.’ Oh, ‘Chito’ can’t get this guy off his back.’ So that’s the thing: It’s just like a little double standard for some of these Hall of Famers and fan favorites.”
Bautista said he was surprised that Aldo never tried to break free when he had his back stacked against the cage. He thinks it’s on him to get busy, too.
“I just wanted him to keep on working,” Bautista explained. “I just wanted him to break out of the clinch, use that energy to get out, and then just kind of stay stuck to him. Just keep him working, working. I just didn’t really think he was going to, I don’t know, I guess just stay on the wall?
“I thought he was going to get out because that takes up some energy. There are points where I felt – yeah, he was defending the takedown, and maybe he could have circled off, but he just kind of chose to stay there and kind of wait a little bit. Yeah, I was holding him against the cage, but at the same time, I think he did have opportunities to circle off. It’s just he chose not to.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.
