Jose Aldo reveals planned 2016 superfight against Khabib Nurmagomedov that fell apart

UFC bantamweight contender Jose Aldo revealed a planned 2016 superfight against former lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov that fell apart.

Aldo spoke to MMAFighting.com in a recent interview and said that in 2016, the UFC came to him and offered a fight against Nurmagomedov. According to Aldo, however, “The Eagle” turned down the fight, and Aldo says he has no idea why he didn’t want it.

“I was traveling when (my coach) ‘Dede’ (Pederneiras) called me. The (UFC) had offered me this fight and we took it. I said, ‘What? I want that, I’m in.’ I respect everybody, but that opportunity. I was the featherweight champion, and (Nurmagomedov) didn’t think it was a good (idea). I don’t know if he was expecting to fight somebody else, I don’t know what he was thinking at the time. I think it could have been a great fight,” Aldo said.

“I wanted to test myself. Everybody always asks me. It’s funny, everybody thinks I train wrestling a lot. No, man, I usually do the same training with my team, so, to me, it would have been a really tough test. I’ve always fought against American wrestling and it was hard to take me down, so it would be a tough test against him, if he would be able to impose his takedown game against me knowing that I have pretty good takedown defense as well.”

Aldo also took umbrage with Nurmagomedov’s recent remarks, comments that suggested Aldo didn’t deserve as much praise as he got for beating Pedro Munhoz at UFC 265.

“Sometimes Khabib talks too much. He’s not doing much these days, he’s retired, so he’s looking for (attention) that way,” Aldo said about Nurmagomedov.

Who do you think would have won this fight between Jose Aldo and Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2016? Who do you think if they fought again in 2021?