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Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight champion, Jose Aldo, silenced his weight-cutting critics after successfully dropping down to the 135-pound division and putting on a strong performance against the No. 1-ranked bantamweight in the world.
I guess Dana White was wrong.
Aldo routinely struggled to hit the featherweight mark so it was not unreasonable to think that bantamweight was out of reach; however, his team paired “Junior” with the appropriate doctors to make sure the drop was completed safely and successfully.
“Many athletes tend to follow a protein diet before the weigh-ins,” nutritionist Dr. Priscila Antunes told MMA Fighting. “I’ve had that experience before but I think it broke my athletes. When I did the ketogenic diet with him, it worked. Reading the scientific paper is one thing, but making someone follow that during a moment of stress before a fight is completely different, but it worked.”
Aldo (28-6) lost a close split-decision to Marlon Moraes at UFC 245 earlier this month is Las Vegas, a fight that “Junior” argues was scored incorrectly. In fact, there’s even talk about booking the Brazilian for a bantamweight title fight against Henry Cejudo.
Who was recently demoted to Double C.
Aldo has already proved he can make the bantamweight limit, but I think the question moving forward is how sustainable a career at 135 pounds can be for him, longterm. It may depend on how much weight he allows himself to gain in between fights.