Jose Aldo hoping to fight on UFC 231, was offered Donald Cerrone at UFC Sao Paulo

The legend of Jose Aldo may only be on the verge of reaching greater heights. After an ultra-impressive win over Jeremy Stephens, it’s onto what’s next.

The former longtime featherweight king and consensus greatest 145er to ever compete, Aldo has essentially done all there is to do in the weight class that he’s found all of his success in. So is it time to test new waters…?

It seems that that may be the case as when speaking with Brazilian media recently (via MMAFighting), Aldo claimed he has no more interest in fighting at featherweight unless it’s for the title. Which means facing Brian Ortega or a third bout with Max Holloway.

“Right after the fight [with Stephens], Dana [White] talked about the big possibility of fighting on December 8, in Canada again.

I’ve had already asked for that fight, I said I wanted to be on that event. I really enjoyed fighting in Canada, where I made my UFC debut, and I hope to fight there again. It’s up to [Andre] ‘Dede’ [Pederneiras] now, he’s looking into that and talking to the Dana and [UFC matchmaker] Sean [Shelby] to get my next fight done.

[Anthony] Pettis was a request from fans, I got many messages saying he would be a great fight for me next. They also asked me to fight in Sao Paulo, but there was not enough time to get it done at lightweight. They even put me to fight [Donald] Cerrone, but it wasn’t done. I’m waiting for ‘Dede’ now, talking to him, and when he finds a good name and they agree to it, we’ll fight.”

There was once a time where Aldo and the then lightweight champion Anthony Pettis were set to meet in the Octagon at featherweight. Of course, this never ended up going down but fans were very excited about it and they surely wouldn’t be opposed to it now and especially at 155-pounds.

A fight with Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone isn’t something that would have been a bad alternative either! So it’s a shame that it couldn’t have came together but perhaps it will in the future. Cerrone will be taking on Mike Perry on November 10 in Denver, Colorado while Pettis fights Tony Ferguson at UFC 229 in Las Vegas on October 6.

Aldo continued on about the possibility of fighting Cerrone at the upcoming UFC Sao Paulo event.

“The UFC [offered it]. When Glover [Teixeira] pulled out and they had no main event, they asked if there was a possibility for me to fight. We accepted, depending on the opponent, and they offered Cerrone right after, and he had already agreed, and ‘Dede’ didn’t think it would be good because there wasn’t enough time. We needed some time to rest before we started another camp again, so it didn’t happen. But now we’re waiting for ‘Dede’ to talk to them again so we know who we’re fighting.

It was actually funny. Sean called ‘Dede’ talking about the fight, and ‘Dede’ asked who would be the opponent, and they called back moments after offering Cerrone. It would be 155 for sure, right? No way it’s 170, it’s too heavy. But it was tough because we didn’t have enough time to prepare, especially against Cerrone, a very tough guy, someone who fights hard in his losses, so there was no possibility. Maybe the possibility of fighting in Brazil got me overexcited, I said it was possible, but thinking clearly there was no way we could fight, especially someone like Cerrone. I have to be very well trained to fight him.”

Just when we thought that the lightweight division couldn’t get any better, the former featherweight king Aldo might be joining the mix.

on 9/11/2018