Andre Pederneiras says Jose Aldo wants to pursue a professional career in boxing.
Even before Conor McGregor was booked to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr., Jose Aldo expressed his desire to compete in the boxing ring.
"Yes, I think about having a career in boxing, but I want to start from the bottom, start from zero. I want to get ranked and one day fight for a belt,” Aldo said in an interview earlier in January.
And, according to his longtime coach and mentor, Andre Pederneiras, ‘Scarface’ is still very serious about taking up the sweet science full time.
"He’s training boxing because he has this dream of competing in professional boxing,” Pederneiras told MMA Fighting in a recent interview. "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.”
Aldo went undefeated in MMA for ten years but recently dropped losses to ‘The Notorious’ and Max Holloway, losing the UFC featherweight title on both occasions.
Pederneiras says the former champion is adamant about finishing his UFC contract and making the switch from the Octagon to the squared circle.
"He doesn’t want to stay inactive for a long time. And there’s both sides: he definitely wants to finish the contract."
Aldo is not currently booked to fight but is expected to rematch top featherweight contender Cub Swanson in the fall. The Brazilian holds a win over Swanson from his WEC days, knocking out ‘Killer Cub’ with a beautiful double flying knee in the first 8 seconds of the opening round.
"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."