You wouldn’t have known it from his last two title defenses, but UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo was fighting hurt.
Last fall, his issues finally came to enough of a head that he was forced to pull out of a scheduled title defense at UFC 125 so he could get healthy. And while a neck injury was the official reason for pulling out of his fight with Josh Grispi in January, it was an issue with his right shoulder that has had him on the shelf for six months.
“There were two things that were bothering him,” said Aldo’s translator, Derek Lee, during a Tuesday media call ahead of UFC 129. “The first was on his neck – the C5 and C6, he had a little bit of pain on his discs. But really, the main injury was on his right shoulder. He feels that he injured it during the Mike Brown fight, and after that he still fought Urijah Faber and Manny Gamburyan.”