Cejudo Wants Aldo Next And Dana White Is Down For It

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Jose Aldo lost his UFC 245 fight on the judges’ scorecards, but Henry Cejudo and Dana White think he won and that may be all that matters.

Jose Aldo proved all his doubters wrong with a pretty successful move down a weight class to 135 pounds at UFC245. It’s one thing to say the weight cut was relatively painless and bantamweight would be no problem to hit repeatedly. It’s another to still be able to absorb big shots and maintain your cardio for 15 minutes. Aldo did both against the #1 ranked contender in the division, Marlon Moraes, and more.

He looked big. He looked fast. He shrugged off Moraes’ biggest shots while hurting Moraes with his own. In the end the judges rendered a split decision in Marlon’s favor, but many fans felt like Aldo had done more than enough to win the fight. And it seems like that opinion extends all the way up through the ranks of fighters to UFC brass as well.

Following the event, Dana White added his name to the list of people who thought Aldo had won that fight. Flyweight and bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo did as well. And here’s how that may play out very well for Jose.

”[Aldo] won the fight,” White said during a post-fight media scrum. “Listen, you can’t win a fight running backwards for two rounds. It doesn’t work that way. I don’t know what those judges were watching. To give that fight to Marlon is crazy. But he won it. Cejudo hit me up tonight and said ‘Jose Aldo absolutely won that fight and I think you should treat him like he won that fight.’ He said ‘I want Jose Aldo.’”

”And you told him…?” ESPN’s Brett Okamoto prompted.

”’Awesome.’ What would I say to that? I’m not going to say no. I said ‘Awesome.’ I don’t know, we’ll see. That’s what he wants. Cejudo is the man right now so we’ll talk about it. Tuesday we’ll all get together and have a matchmaking meeting and start talking about what happens as a result of tonight.”

It would be pretty unconventional having a guy coming off a loss fighting for a UFC title. But as White said, it’s not like Aldo really lost. Everyone but two Nevada judges think he beat the #1 contender. That and Aldo’s status as the greatest featherweight champ of all time make it pretty palatable. We don’t think you have to twist the UFC’s arm too much when it comes to a money fight like Cejudo vs. Aldo.

Unfortunately, that would leave another bantamweight contender, Petr Yan, on the outside looking in. Yan just took Urijah Faber’s head off and is on a six fight win streak in the UFC. But none of his victims have been top five guys. Maybe get him and #2 ranked Aljamain Sterling should scrap for next after Aldo and Cejudo go at it?

What do you think, Maniacs? Are you okay with the UFC ignoring the official results of a fight to right a wrong, or does stuff like this hurt the UFC’s legitimacy?