Only man to defeat Jose Aldo returns to MMA at Shooto: BOPE 4

Three years after his last MMA bout, Luciano Azevedo will make his return to the cage in August.

Azevedo, who handled UFC featherweight kingpin Jose Aldo his only loss in a MMA bout in 2005, is set to compete again at the Shooto Brazil 49 – Fight for BOPE 4 card on Aug. 24 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, against Jeferson dos Santos.

The luta livre fighter last competed in a unanimous draw against Diego Braga in 2011, and dedicated his life to being a police officer since. He currently works at the Jacarezinho favela, one of the most dangerous favelas in the city.

“It’s tough, you saw how the community is,” Azevedo told MMAFighting.com in 2013 about his work as a cop. “I work twice a week in a 24-hour shift, but you get used to that. The police are here in the community, but we know that there are still a lot of drug dealers living here. People ask for your help to solve everything. We have work to do 24-7, the favela never sleeps.

“They (criminals) shoot at us then hide, and you can’t just fire back because you can hit someone innocent. My car has been shot already, but they never shot me. It’s good that I never had to use my gun, but sometimes you get pissed because you can’t shoot back at someone that is shooting at you.”

The Shooto card takes place at the Tijuca Tenis Clube gymnasium and is headlined by a welterweight title fight between undefeated Luiz Gustavo Dutra da Silva, the younger brother of UFC fighter Luiz Dutra, and former Shooto welterweight champion and Bellator fighter Carlos Alexandre Pereira.

Three other bouts were announced for the fight card: Ismael de Jesus vs. Evilasio Silva Araujo, Haroldo Bunn vs. Eduardo Betini and Fernando Bruno vs. Julio Cesar de Almeida.

Three years after his last MMA bout, Luciano Azevedo will make his return to the cage in August.

Azevedo, who handled UFC featherweight kingpin Jose Aldo his only loss in a MMA bout in 2005, is set to compete again at the Shooto Brazil 49 – Fight for BOPE 4 card on Aug. 24 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, against Jeferson dos Santos.

The luta livre fighter last competed in a unanimous draw against Diego Braga in 2011, and dedicated his life to being a police officer since. He currently works at the Jacarezinho favela, one of the most dangerous favelas in the city.

“It’s tough, you saw how the community is,” Azevedo told MMAFighting.com in 2013 about his work as a cop. “I work twice a week in a 24-hour shift, but you get used to that. The police are here in the community, but we know that there are still a lot of drug dealers living here. People ask for your help to solve everything. We have work to do 24-7, the favela never sleeps.

“They (criminals) shoot at us then hide, and you can’t just fire back because you can hit someone innocent. My car has been shot already, but they never shot me. It’s good that I never had to use my gun, but sometimes you get pissed because you can’t shoot back at someone that is shooting at you.”

The Shooto card takes place at the Tijuca Tenis Clube gymnasium and is headlined by a welterweight title fight between undefeated Luiz Gustavo Dutra da Silva, the younger brother of UFC fighter Luiz Dutra, and former Shooto welterweight champion and Bellator fighter Carlos Alexandre Pereira.

Three other bouts were announced for the fight card: Ismael de Jesus vs. Evilasio Silva Araujo, Haroldo Bunn vs. Eduardo Betini and Fernando Bruno vs. Julio Cesar de Almeida.