The long-awaited World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) superfight just doesn’t seem like it’s meant to be.
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and WEC Featherweight champion, Jose Aldo, returned from a brief retirement at UFC 301 earlier this month (May 4, 2024). In the evening’s co-main event, Aldo earned a unanimous decision win over Jonathan Martinez and looked as good as he did before his break in 2022.
The match up seemed random for a legend of Aldo’s caliber returning to the Bantamweight ranks. However, reports revealed that former UFC and WEC Bantamweight champion, Dominick Cruz, was originally in talks to fight Aldo before the Brazilian confirmed such. Reflecting on the situation, “The Dominator” sees a certain logic in how or why they happened the way they did.
“I saw his words were that they offered him to fight me but he wanted somebody in the top five, or, ‘He’s not in the top five,’” Cruz said on the Anik & Florian Podcast (h/t MMA Junkie). “Is Jonathan Martinez in the top five? Okay, so there’s that. Then, why would you want to be in the top five unless you’re going to fight for the title? Is he planning on renegotiating his contract for another six fights and going for the title?
“Or do you want to make sure you secure a win to become a free agent off a win instead of a loss when you’ve got to face the likes of me, which is a nightmare?” he continued. “I’m not saying Jonathan Martinez isn’t a nightmare, but the way that I saw it is, he showed up on the first weigh-in and then he showed up the second weigh-in apologizing for showing up to the first weigh-in and that right there showed me that the man was learning who he was against Jose Aldo before he even got in there.”
Aldo and Cruz are essentially the equivalents of the lighter weight classes’ Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre, which was the ultimate all-time great superfight that never materialized. Therefore, this is one of those instances where it might be better late than never.
Cruz, 39, hasn’t fought since a tough third round head kick knockout loss to Marlon “Chito” Vera at UFC San Diego in August 2022 (watch highlights). Aldo, 37, is now testing free agency after the Martinez fight completed his UFC contract. Unfortunately, Cruz doesn’t see his fellow legend re-signing with the promotion for the sake of their fight.
“He’s not going to renegotiate,” Cruz said. “Why would he sign for another six fights in the UFC? He’s not going to do that. He’s going to go be a free agent.”