Born: March 26, 1988 (Age: 35) in Culiacan, Mexico
Division: Women’s Bantamweight
Height: 5’9”
Reach: 68.5”
Record: 14-6 (7-4 UFC)
Association: Lobo Gym
Stage of Career: Prime to Post-Prime
Summary: Aldana is a dangerous but limited striker who also poses
some danger in the grappling department, though it can be a
weakness against certain opponents. She has two major weapons in
the standup: her right cross and the left hook. Both are powerful,
accurate shots, and the left hook, in particular, is sudden and led
to a knockout of
Ketlen
Vieira in 2019. Aldana’s jab remains surprisingly light and
vulnerable to counters, and she lacks other punches. Her kicks are
also fairly weak, tentative and telegraphed. However, her defense
has proven to be quite sturdy thanks to well-timed retreats. She
circles away from power and blocks with her hands, which she keeps
in a high guard. Aldana can be taken down but possesses some nice
sweeps off her back. From top position, she features potent
ground-and-pound. Aldana has strong cardio that allows her to fight
hard for all three rboounds, but she will occasionally make some
poor tactical choices.
STRIKING
• Stance: Orthodox.
• Hand Speed: Average.
• Jab: Slightly below average. It is reasonably straight, carries
some speed and sets up the right cross, but it is soft, weak and
oftentimes telegraphed. Furthermore, Aldana drops the arm after
throwing the jab instead of pulling it back at shoulder level,
leaving her open to counters.
• Cross: A powerful, accurate punch.
• Left Hook: Her best punch. In addition to the Vieira knockout,
she also dropped Yano Santos with it. A technical weapon, Aldana
throws it with a tight arc and solid rotation. It is fairly sudden
and features power and accuracy.
• Overhand Right: Too straight-armed and often connects with the
side of the hand. She rarely throws it.
• Uppercuts: A mixed back. She throws a left to the body that often
lands clean but lacks power.
• Solitary Striker or Volume Puncher: Aside from the occasional
one-two, she tends to throw one shot at a time.
• Favorite Combination(s): The one-two, though opponents only have
to concern themselves with the second punch in the sequence.
• Leg Kicks: Rarely throws them, as they are slow, tentative,
telegraphed and carry little impact.
• Body Kicks: Only used sparingly.
• Head Kicks: Never utilizes them.
• Chains Kicks to Punches: No.
Aldana’s striking generally revolves around two weapons: a
consistent and powerful right cross that frequently finds its
target and an excellent left hook—a tight, accurate and sudden shot
with the capability to stop an opponent. Beyond those punches,
there is little to fear. Her overhand right remains poor and her
jab, though it sets up the right cross, is soft and open to be
countered. Aldana’s kicks are also weak and often telegraphed.
However, her defense has improved considerably over the years. She
retreats well, blocks with her hands and circles away from power on
the outside.
CLINCH
• Physical Strength: Fair. As a relatively large bantamweight, she
can push weaker opponents off of her.
• Technique: Slightly below average, as she can be slow to react to
opponents changing levels or switching positions.
• Knees: Average. She sometimes fails to turn her hips and can
struggle to get them high enough in one fluid motion.
• Elbows: Does not throw them.
• Defense Against Knees/Elbows: Sound. Avoids close-range strikes
well.
Aldana does not like to stay in the clinch for long, as she has
proven vulnerable to takedowns there. She often succeeds in pushing
away opponents and can deliver an occasional knee strike to the
body, though it usually lacks meaningful oomph.
GRAPPLING
• Wrestling from a Shot: Weak in the rare occasions when she uses
it.
• Wrestling in the Clinch: Almost non-existent.
• Takedown Defense: Aldana can shut down poor attempts, though she
does not angle off at all and tends to get caught off-guard. She
was taken down easily and at will by
Holly Holm
and surrendered a pair of takedowns to
Macy
Chiasson.
• Ability to Return to Feet: She has the ability to wall walk when
the opponent fails to apply ample pressure but lacks other
tools.
• Submissions: She shows some ability with the armbar when taking
the back, as she did against
Bethe
Correia, yet she could not finished an armbar Chiasson
seemingly gifted to her.
• Defense/Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from the Bottom: Aldana has swept
multiple opponents—she did so against Chiasson by using a heel
hook—but she remains susceptible to effective ground-and-pound.
• Top control: Limited. She will often posture up and allow
scrambles that she tends to lose.
• Ground-and-Pound: Throws hard punches while using her body well,
though she needs to posture to do so, resulting in a somewhat
telegraphed attack. She did manage to finish Santos with it.
Aldana’s grappling can be both a liability and a weapon. Her
takedown defense remains average at best, and she has difficulty
getting back to a standing position. Aldana can also be exposed by
an opponent who unleashes significant ground-and-pound. With that
said, she can deftly hit certain sweeps from her back. She can also
be effective from top position with attempted armbars and fairly
powerful ground-and-pound, though her need to posture up allows
some opponents to escape to their feet.
INTANGIBLES
• Athleticism/General Physical Strength: She moves well enough for
a bantamweight and looks to be moderately powerful.
• Cardio: Only slows down marginally while fighting at a fairly
energetic pace, and she has had enough left in the tank to deliver
a pair of stoppages in the third round.
• Chin: She was knocked down by
Leslie
Smith and knocked out by
Larissa
Pacheco earlier in her career. Both resulted from heavy blows.
Aldana has looked sturdy enough against weaker connections.
• Recuperative Powers: Aldana survived against Smith despite being
dazed for a time.
• Intelligence: She has shown little improvements here and there
during her UFC run. She lost to
Raquel
Pennington due to poor fight IQ. She failed to stand up despite
being afforded numerous opportunities to do so. Later, Aldana
pulled Pennington on top of her, losing the third round as a result
of being on the bottom. With that said, she remains calm under
duress and has capitalized on the mistakes of her opponents in
recent outings.