Coach claims Jose Aldo’s days in MMA are numbered
Over the last few months, a seemingly endless list of MMA fighters have expressed interest in testing their hands in the professional boxing ring. Fighters from Stipe Miocic to Jimi Manuwa to Artem Lobov to Anderson Silva have all done so, and now, Jose Aldo is doing the same.
Aldo, of course, has shared interest in a move to boxing several times in the past, but having watched Conor McGregor perform remarkably well against Floyd Mayweather last weekend, his interest in a boxing career appears to have crescendoed to new heights.
Speaking to Guilherme Cruz of MMAFighting.com, Aldo’s coach Andre Pederneiras revealed that Aldo is hard at work sharpening his boxing skills, and that he plans to fight out his UFC contract and make a possibly permanent jump to the sweet science.
“He’s training boxing because he has this dream of competing in professional boxing,” Pederneiras said. “If it was up to him, he’d fight all of his UFC fights (left on the contract) in three months and go box. He wants to box professionally.”
“He doesn’t want to stay inactive for a long time,” Pederneiras continued, “and there’s both sides: he definitely wants to finish the contract.”
While boxing is very much on the agenda for Aldo, however, the immediate plan remains a rematch with red-hot contender Cub Swanson.
“We’re waiting for the UFC,” Pederneiras said. “We’re trying to get this fight done, against Cub Swanson or someone else. He wants to fight (against) someone well ranked, and wait for an opportunity to fight for the belt.”
Though he once resided near the top of MMA’s pound-for-pound list, Aldo is an unfortunate 1-2 in his last three, having lost the featherweight title to Conor McGregor, won interim gold against Frankie Edgar, and after being promoted to undisputed champ, lost that title to Max Holloway.
How do you think Jose Aldo would perform in the boxing ring?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 8/30/2017.
Topics:
Jose Aldo
