Jose Aldo knocked out Jeremy Stephens at 4:19 of the first round (Getty Images) Jose Aldo delivered a none-too-subtle reminder Saturday that despite three recent losses, he remains one of the elite fighters in the world. Aldo had lost three of his last four, including his last two, and was given up for dead by many. But in a toe-to-toe slugfest Saturday with Jeremy Stephens at the Saddledome in Calgary, Aldo delivered a reminder of his historic championship run atop the UFC’s featherweight division from 2010 through 2015, stopping Stephens with a pair of pulverizing body shots at 4:19 of the first round. It was vintage Aldo exchanging concussive punches with Stephens for the first four minutes before catching Stephens with a pair of shots to the body. Aldo landed a right and followed with a left hook he turned into, and Stephens turned, winced and fell to the canvas in a fetal position. Aldo joined Zuffa, the company that owns the UFC, and fought for its World Extreme Cagefighting company because the UFC didn’t have featherweights. He won his first 15 fights in the WEC and UFC, and was rarely challenged. In his last three, he was knocked out at UFC 194 in just 13 seconds by Conor McGregor on Dec. 12, 2015. He scored a five-round decision over Frankie Edgar at UFC 200, then lost a pair of championship fights, at UFC 212 and UFC 218, to Max Holloway. Stephens entered the fight on a roll, having won three in a row, and believing he’d finish Aldo to make a statement and earn a title shot. “Conor took his head, Max took his heart and I’m going to take his soul,” Stephens told Yahoo Sports before the fight. “Look at his face: It’s drooping. He’s been in a lot of wars. He’s been in a lot of fights. He’s got a lot of damage [from fights] but not only that, it’s also from the training camps that he’s had. I’ll get my chance to expose him and I’ll do exactly what I said.” It wasn’t to be, though. Aldo didn’t look diminished a bit, and survived a brief moment of concern midway through the round when Stephens landed a pair of uppercuts that rocked him. Story continues He’s been fighting since 2004 and the poise and patience he’s gained in those 14 years paid off. He slipped out of danger and went back to firing big shots at Stephens. It was the body shots, however, that did Stephens in. Stephens wasn’t happy with the finish, but he was clearly in trouble and Aldo was in a dominant position. It was reminiscent of his heyday, when he made nine consecutive successful defenses of his WEC/UFC featherweight crown. He alluded to that in the cage following the win. “The champion is back,” Aldo said. He has plenty of work yet to do, but on this night, at least, it was vintage Aldo. And that was not only more than enough to beat Stephens, it is likely enough to beat just about everyone at featherweight. More from Yahoo Sports: • Air Force player comes out as gay: ‘I did not think this day would ever come’ • Dez Bryant blames Cowboys ‘garbage ass play calling’ for struggles in Twitter rant • Is a Jimmer Fredette NBA comeback possible? • Yankees fans go after pitcher on Twitter who hit Aaron Judge<doc-sep>Jose Aldo returned to the win column at UFC Calgary, as the Brazilian picked up his first stoppage win since 2013 by dropping Jeremy Stephens with a body shot then securing the first round TKO with some ground and pound. What was the high point of the fight? Both men started the fight with an aggressive pace, exchanging some heavy leg kicks early on. An uppercut from Stephens appeared to stun Aldo and forced the Brazilian up against the fence for a moment, but he fired back by swinging some heavy shots of his own and the two continued to engage in the pocket. A devastating left hook to the body sent Stephens crumbling to the floor, and Aldo began to storm in for the finish. After following up with some ground and pound, referee Yves Lavigne stopped the fight and awarded Aldo the victory. Where do these two go from here? Playing matchmaker for Aldo at the moment is tough, as the 31-year-old has recently stated he will retire after his current UFC deal is up. With just two fights left on his deal, another title fight against the current champion Max Holloway seems unlikely, so maybe a trilogy fight with Chad Mendes would be a fun one to make. The loss for Stephens is a huge setback in his path towards title contention. A win against Aldo would have propelled “Lil Heathen” into the title picture, but he will now have to work his way back up to featherweight gold. A rematch against Josh Emmett, or a fight against the surging Mirsad Bektic both make sense for Stephens. Watch it now, later or never? Watch it now, to see the brutal body shot by Aldo that led to the finish.<doc-sep>Jose Aldo got his groove back earlier tonight (Sat., July 28, 2018) at UFC on FOX 30 from inside Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, as the former UFC featherweight champion finished streaking power puncher Jeremy Stephens via first-round TKO. While it wasn’t the most perfect performance by Aldo considering he ate some good shots early on, it was the win the Brazilian needed to validate his future in UFC. Stephens is a hard out at 145 pounds and hung in the pocket for the majority of this fight, but Aldo proved the better striker when he landed a left hook to the liver of “Lil Heathen” in the very first round. Stephens couldn’t stomach the pain, Aldo pounced on top for heavy ground-and-pound, and the referee stepped in for the stoppage. Check out the memorable first-round finish above courtesy of UFC. With this performance, Aldo ends a two-fight losing streak he suffered at the hands of current UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway. Aldo doesn’t have too many fights left on his current UFC contract, but another performance like this one could give him good reason to keep the party rolling. For complete UFC Calgary results and coverage click here.<doc-sep>
Jose Aldo scores thunderous knockout victory to snap losing streak Jose Aldo's first ever non-title fight in the UFC was a roaring success. Jose Aldo badly needed a win at UFC Calgary. The consensus greatest featherweight of all time entered into his bout against Jeremy Stephens off back-to-back knockout losses to Max Holloway. He was also finished in three of his previous four fights and already hinting at retirement. 'Scarface' closed as the betting underdog against 'Lil Heathen' who came into the fight off the back of his joint-best run in the UFC. Stephens was riding a three-fight win-streak after beating Gilbert Melendez, Doo Ho Choi and Josh Emmett respectively. The oddsmakers got this one wrong though. Even though Aldo's an old 31-year-old, he proved he had plenty left in the tank in Canada. The greatest The fight started off very ropey. Aldo appeared to be a little gun-shy in the opening exchanges. Stephens waded forward, landed a few hard leg kicks and tried to goad the Brazillian into a brawl. Stephens had Aldo hurt early on. In one of the wilder exchanges, he caught Aldo with a huge uppercut and had him trapped against the fence. Aldo looked a little dazed, but utilised his head movement wonderfully to avoid any further damage and recover. The beginning of the end came when Aldo landed a seismic body shot. At first, it looked like Stephens ate it well. However, the pain just took a few moments to set in. In a delayed reaction, the American crumbled to the canvas. Aldo pounced on him and landed heavy ground and pound until the referee had seen enough. He awarded Aldo the TKO victory at the 4:19 mark of the very first round. WHAT. A. BODY SHOT. @josealdojunior gets the TKO win over Jeremy Stephens. pic.twitter.com/Gcg4H7fUJn — FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) July 29, 2018 Aldo was understandably delighted to get back in the win column. It marked his first finish in five years. The last time he finished an opponent was against Chan Sung Jung in 2013. 'The Korean Zombie' actually dislocated his shoulder in the lead up to the TKO. “The champion is back,” Aldo said with the help of a translator. “I just have to keep it up.” The result sees Aldo improve to 27-4 (9-3 UFC). Meanwhile, Stephens fell to 28-15 (15-14 UFC).