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Former 135 title challenger Marlon Moraes would like to take on former featherweight champion Jose Aldo in December.
There will not be a shortage of opponents if former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo really decides to drop to the bantamweight division. After coming up short in his attempt for Henry Cejudo’s title back in June, Marlon Moraes would like to be the one to welcome the featherweight all-time great into the new weight class.
In an interview with Combate, ‘Magic’ explained how he expects to return to the Octagon at UFC 245, in December, and believes and facing Aldo would be a good deal for Jose, as well as himself. A match against Moraes would mean that Aldo would be fighting bantamweight’s number one contender in his first fight at 135 lbs.
“I’ve been training and I want to start a camp. I hope I can fight on December 14, it would be a great date for me to fight. Let’s see what the UFC has planned. The Aldo fight is not only interesting for me. Jose is a legend of the sport, a featherweight champion. He has been talking about dropping to bantamweight and I’m the number one contender. Nothing better than dropping a division and fighting the number one guy. He deserves it. Aldo shouldn’t have to fight 53 times before he can fight for the title. I think it would be a good opportunity for him to prove to the UFC he can really make the weight. And, if he wins, he would go straight to a title shot.”
Should Aldo not drop to the bantamweight division in the near future, however, Marlon already has some other names he plans on calling out. Chief among them, former champion Dominick Cruz, returning veteran Urijah Faber and rising contender Petr Yan.
“There are other guys, too, like Petr Yan, I’ve been meaning to fight him. There’s Dominick Cruz, who should be coming back by now, there’s Urijah Faber. Those are the guys I’ve been thinking about.”
In his last outing, Marlon Moraes was TKO’d by Henry Cejudo, back in June. The loss snapped a four-fight winning streak that dated all the way back to November 2017, with wins over John Dodson, Aljamain Sterling, Jimmie Rivera and Raphael Assuncao.