The purpose for Jose Aldo when he stepped into the cage at UFC 278 this final Saturday couldn’t have been clearer. The previous featherweight champion and bantamweight title contender has had just one factor in thoughts over his current three-fight unbeaten streak: get again to UFC gold.
“Once we first began, I advised Dede (Pederneiras, Aldo’s coach) that at 35 I’d be champion and I’d retire,” Aldo mentioned in an interview again in July. “That’s the reason I say that I’m very near retiring, although I used to say I’d retire as a champion.”
Together with his thirty sixth birthday lower than a month away now, and his fast title hopes seemingly scuppered within the wake of a unanimous choice loss to Merab Dvalishvili, it simply could also be that followers have seen the Brazilian MMA legend within the Octagon for the final time. That’s actually the narrative that Dvalishvili is spinning following his victory. In a current interview on the MMA Hour the Serra-Longo expertise revealed that Aldo advised him that he’d fought his “final combat” after the conclusion of their bout.
“When he was down and I [went] to shake his hand and inform him, ‘Thanks a lot for the combat,’ and I’m going to respect him, he was down, and I attempted to assist him, and he was telling me, he mentioned, ‘Meaning that is my final combat, as a result of it was my final run to title,’” Dvalishvili mentioned (transcript by way of MMA Preventing). “After which he mentioned, ‘I assume I’m carried out.’
“It was a really emotional second. That’s why I used to be speaking to him. I mentioned, ‘You’re superb, you probably did a lot, you don’t have something to show, you’re a legend – you’re a king.’ I used to be a bit of bit heartbroken.”
Aldo has launched his personal assertion following the loss, thanking these round him “for all the love I obtain alongside my stroll…” however the longtime Nova Uniao stalwart has but to make any public touch upon the way forward for his profession.
If this actually is the final time followers see Aldo within the cage, then he’ll unquestionably retire as one of many biggest featherweights—and even perhaps pure MMA abilities—of all time. Although, if there’s ever been one fixed within the MMA world, it’s that fighters usually discover it a lot tougher to go away the game behind than they anticipate. Who is aware of? It could simply be that a number of months away will discover Aldo feeling the itch to get again within the cage and compete as soon as once more.
