José Aldo Da Silva Oliveira Junior was born on September 9, 1986 in Manaus, Brazil. In his early years Aldo had dreams of becoming a Professional soccer player and it has been said that he was a semi-pro player who was about to turn pro before choosing to take fighting seriously. The first martial art he learned was Capoeira of which he took up in order to protect himself on the street. When he turned 17 he was introduced to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and moved to Rio de Janeiro to train full time.
Aldo would train at the famous Nova Uniao Brazlian Jiu Jitsu Academy under the guidance of André Pederneiras where he would train extensively in Gi Jiu Jitsu. He is well accomplished in BJJ by winning many tournaments, most notably the 2003 purple belt Brazilian title and the 2004 Brown belt World title. Aldo is comfortable playing many types of guards including sitting guard, closed guard and de la Riva guard. He is just as comfortable fighting on the top showing great base and posture making him difficult to sweep. He also showed in his BJJ matches early on that he is difficult to take down which he has also proven in MMA against high level wrestlers.
Despite having a legitimate ground game, Aldo hasn’t had to use it throughout his MMA career. Instead he chooses to use his devastating strikes and ground and pound to win. His striking was taught by Luta Livre (free fight) instructors at Nova Uniao and he received his Luta Livre Black belt by the legendary Marco Ruas. He is a fierce striker using knees, elbows, punches and leg kicks among many weapons in his arsenal.