You're eyes would have felt like sandpaper by the end of the fifth round if you took him for his word.
Jose Aldo was expecting to make quick work of Canadian striker Mark Hominick but "The Machine" had other plans.
Hominick gutted through some nasty cuts, bone-crushing leg kicks and some of the worst facial swelling I've ever seen to take the fierce champion to the judges' scorecards where he would lose a unanimous decision.
The champion made it look like it was going to be a short night early, bouncing around the cage and landing repeated combinations of left hook to the body followed by a ferocious right leg kick that staggered Hominick multiple times.
Hominick countered with punching combinations of his own but when he got too confident with his stand-up, the Brazilian took him down and beat on him for nearly three straight minutes.
By the beginning of the second round, Aldo was already showing signs of fatigue. He was very flat-footed and was forced to use his rapid head movement to avoid "The Machine's" punches. This left his body wide open and the challenger obliged with big hooks to the body.
The tiring Aldo was forced to use his wrestling and ground and pound to score points against the Shawn Tompkins trained fighter.
The champ would drop Hominick twice, once in the third and fourth rounds, but couldn't finish the fight. What he did, though, was create a ghastly hematoma on the Canadian's forehead.
It appeared Hominick wanted to join his very pregnant wife at the hospital and both give birth at the same time.
Incredibly, the doctor's allowed "The Machine" to continue for the fifth and he made them look like geniuses by not only winning the round, but crushing Aldo with four-plus minutes of ground and pound that brought the raucous 55,000 crowd to its collective feet.
Hominick couldn't secure the finish but he scored some major respect points and I'm sure he won't be complaining about the 129,000 "Fight of the Night" bonus he secured with his performance.
For the Canadian, he became the first man to make Aldo look human. Granted, it took the culmination of five rounds against a gassed champion, but he earned a ton of fans with his impressive undertaking.
He'll remain in the upper echelon of featherweights and is likely just one or two fights away from another opportunity at the title.
For Jose Aldo, he has to be disappointed despite having another successful title defense.
The champ tired after just one round in the cage and admitted that some added muscle mass made the weight cut difficult. He either needs to drop some muscle or step up to the lightweight division. He's too special of a fighter to be plodding around the cage like that.
I was also very disappointed with Aldo's "legendary" Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills. He put Hominick on his back on at least five occasions (twice after rocking him) and he never passed the challenger's guard. Hominick is a decent grappler but he's been submitted five times in his career. Aldo has either stopped working on his guard-passing abilities to focus on striking or he was simply too exhausted to put forth the effort.
I'm very intrigued by the potential Chad Mendes fight that is being floated around for UFC 133 in Philadelphia. Aldo showed nothing off his back in the fifth round and Mendes has the wrestling skills to put him there early and often.
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