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Marlon Moraes is happy to be the one who welcomes former featherweight champ Jose Aldo to bantamweight.
Former bantamweight title challenger Marlon Moraes is excited to go from fighting a current champion in Henry Cejudo to welcoming the UFC’s former featherweight champ Jose Aldo in his next bout, at UFC 245.
In an interview with Combate, ‘Magic’ explains not many bantamweights were eager to take on Aldo in his first venture into the lighter weight class, but Marlon just could not turn down such a challenge when it was offered to him.
“Win or lose, there is always pressure in the UFC. If you don’t want to live under pressure, you better change professions. I like to feel that, I like being challenged. I know that many people in this division did not want this fight. I was one of the few who stepped up. If he wants to drop down and be the champion, it makes total sense for him to fight a challenger. When we were negotiating, the UFC said it had been hard, because many people did not want to fight him, because of who he is. I can’t deny a challenge. I accepted and will always accept to fight anyone who puts me up there.”
Both Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts with dangerous muay thai, Marlon and Aldo might feature one of the night’s most thrilling bouts on December 14. For Moraes, he cannot envision how the fight will turn out, but expects nothing short of a war.
“I envision many ways, anything can happen. You have to think of a different scenario every time. I’m ready for a lot of stuff, if I say I’m ready for everything, it’s a lie. I’m ready for a war and I can hardly wait to go out there and represent Brazil. Brazilians will be happy about the fight, no matter who wins.”
In his last outing, Moraes (22-6-1) ended up TKO’d by Cejudo at UFC 238, back in June. The loss snapped a four-fight winning streak for the 31-year-old, with wins over John Dodson, Aljamain Sterling, Jimmie Rivera, and Raphael Assuncao, with all but one coming by way of knockout or submission.
UFC 245 is scheduled to host three title shots: A welterweight battle between champion Kamaru Usman and former interim champion Colby Covington, a featherweight title bout between title holder Max Holloway and top contender Alexander Volkanovski, and a women’s bantamweight title fight between ‘double champ’ Amanda Nunes and former featherweight title holder Germaine de Randamie.