We haven’t seen the last of Jose Aldo just yet.
Despite having said before that he wished to retire at the end of his UFC contract, that had just one fight left after his bout against Alexander Volkanovski, the former featherweight champion went back on his words and decided to sign a new deal for seven more fights, per ESPN, who reported that UFC president Dana White and Aldo’s team signed a new contract shortly before the Volkanovski fight, with that bout being the first one in the new deal.
In an interview with Combate, Aldo’s coach and Nova Uniao leader, Andre Pederneiras, says the reason they decided to sign the contract is a simple one: they still believe Jose can become the champion once again.
“We sat throughout this whole period to understand what Aldo’s career would be like from now on,” Pederneiras said. “Despite his desire to fight in professional boxing, we still believe he has the potential to be the champion again. We worked a satisfactory deal that works for both ends. The old contract was replaced by this one and now we have seven more fights with the company ahead of us.”
In his last outing, Jose Aldo (28-5) was bested via unanimous decision by Alexander Volkanovski in a grueling match in May, but defeated Renato Moicano via TKO just before that, in February. According to Pederneiras, the 32-year-old could still come back to fight a third time by the end of 2019, once he heals from some injuries suffered in his last training camp.
“He just came back from vacation,” Pederneiras said. “We expect him to be back by the end of the year, in November or December. Let’s see how the divison unfolds after Holloway and Edgar fight for the title. Then we’ll see who will be a good opponent.”
Jose Aldo lost the UFC featherweight belt back in June 2017, when Max Holloway defeated him via TKO. In December of the same year, ‘Blessed’ had his first title defense in an instant rematch and secured the victory via TKO again. Afterwards, Aldo bounced back with a TKO win of his own against Jeremy Stephens, in July 2018.
