José Aldo styrde en gång i tiden UFCs fjäderviktsdivision med järnhand. I ett decennium, dominerade Aldo egentligen hela världens fjäderviktsdivision genom WEC och UFC. Han satte mer eller mindre divisionen i rampljuset och var en stor framgång för UFCs tittarsiffror.
Efter en lång tid som herre på täppan har, i sammanhanget, blott 31-årige José Aldo förlorat två titlar till Conor McGregor och Max Holloway. Efter motgångarna verkar José Aldo vara inställd på att frigöra sig från organisationen UFC enligt sin tränare Andres Pederneiras:
We’re still talking to see how much [Jose Aldo] wants to keep fighting or not. I think Aldo’s career is a career that nobody can talk badly about. He can do whatever he wants. To retire, to continue, to make a superfight. He is thinking. He is a guy who has managed to make a lot of money over the course of his career and he can retire today without depending on anyone. He will never go hungry in his life. He invested his money, he knew how to save it. I’ve never heard him talk about stopping. I think Aldo has been at it for a long time, in a very continuous time. I think Aldo could take a vacation and feel that motivation to return. I already talked to him, but he wants to end the UFC contract as soon as possible.
With Conor [McGregor], it was a defeat, that firstly we did not expect, and secondly, the way it happened, it was so fast, we couldn’t show anything. One fighter threw, the other also threw, one hit the chin and the other the eyebrow and he had not lost in the UFC yet. The impact [on him] was very large. Losing at home was [also] very bad, in front of the crowd. They are similarly weighted losses. Aldo has wanted to do boxing for a long time. This happened for Conor, but this wasn’t of interest between us and the UFC. We had other issues that we went to Vegas to talk to Dana about. He asked to fight boxing, Dana denied and, later, Conor was fighting boxing. He did not have the thought he thought he might have. Months before he asked, the answer was no. Months later Conor manages to fight in boxing without problem and the UFC allowed it. Of course he has a lot of money involved and in his [Aldo’s] fight he would not, but not everything in life is money. He became quite unmotivated.
Senast vi kunde se José Aldo i buren hade han redan förlorat mot Max Holloway, som besegrade Aldo igen i en rematch den 2:a december förra året. Detta innebar två raka förluster för Aldo, vilket aldrig hänt förut. Aldos första förlust var mot Conor McGregor som knockade Aldo efter häpnande 13 sekunder in i den 1:a ronden.
