Jason Silva-USA TODAY Sports
Former featherweight champion Jose Aldo wants a crack at Henry Cejudo’s bantamweight belt.
Former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo wants to waste no time in getting to another title shot at this point in his career. In an interview with Combate, the 32-year-old revealed that he has been considering a drop to the bantamweight division and a desire to take on champion Henry Cejudo, right away.
Although he was bested via unanimous decision by Alexander Volkanovski in his last outing, at UFC 237 back in May, Aldo has put his name out there for Cejudo’s consideration—after hearing that the ‘Messenger’ is open to taking on all challengers.
“At the moment, we’ve been thinking about what is the best chance to fight for a belt again,” Aldo revealed. “I sat down with everybody, I studied, and I think there’s a real possibility of me making 135. I’ll try to move to this new weight class, and I’m asking for a title shot right off the bat. It’ what matters to me now. Cejudo said he was open to fight anyone, so I’m open to this, I want a chance to fight and beat him. Then I’ll think about moving up again, to 145 or maybe 155. Since he’s open, I’ll accept the challenge. And I hope that, in the near future, we can make this fight happen.”
Aldo has struggled in the past to hit the 145 mark, but the Brazilian also explained that – after consulting his nutritionist – there is a real chance of making it all the way to 135. Aldo feels the move would be a breath of fresh air, and that he’s run out of fresh opponents after his long featherweight career.
“I, particularly, think that 145 is too stale for me. A third fight against Max is hard to happen. The division is renewing itself, so of course they won’t put anybody to fight me, because I can hinder those plans. It’s much easier for me to go down. I never worked with a nutritionist before, to lose weight in the long term. I always did it one week before the fight, but it was quick. Now, we’ve talked and saw a real possibility of hitting the mark. So there’s nothing more fair than to fight the 135 champion.”
Before the aforementioned loss to Volkanovski, Jose Aldo (28-5) scored a couple of TKO wins over the likes of Renato Moicano, in February, and Jeremy Stephens, in July 2018. Aldo lost the featherweight belt back in June 2017, after being TKO’d by Max Holloway at UFC 212.