Former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo returned to the Octagon for the UFC 301 pay-per-view (PPV) co-main event last night (Sat., May 4, 2024) at Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, taking on No. 12-ranked bantamweight contender Jonathan Martinez. After three rounds of action, “Junior” took home a decisive unanimous decision victory, both out-striking and out-wrestling the much younger “Dragon.”
Get a complete recap of Aldo’s victory in our UFC 301 results post here.
Aldo, now 37, had not competed since a lopsided decision loss to top contender Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 278 nearly two years back, a fight that sent the Brazilian into early retirement. But “Junior” found his way back to the Octagon because he still had one fight left on his UFC contract, which means he was barred from competing in any other form of combat sports without the promotion’s permission.
Not only did Aldo win his fight at UFC 301, he also won his freedom.
“I’m looking at maybe a big boxing fight maybe somewhere down the line later this year,” Aldo told MMA Junkie before his UFC 301 return. “But we’ll revisit that with the UFC once this fight is done with Jonathan Martinez. There’s a big event [between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson] on Netflix later this year. Hopefully, I can get on that. But we’ll have to see. There’s a lot of options floating.”
UFC is not a big fan of letting its fighters dabble in the “sweet science.”
“My next step is sitting with Dana [White] and we’ll see where it goes,” Aldo told Daniel Cormier during his post-fight interview. “I said this wasn’t going to be my last fight. I still have the physique and I’m at the age I can still fight. I see that I can still go for it so maybe we can come back in here and become the champion.”
Aldo certainly helped raise his asking price with the victory over Martinez.
At the same, time, “Junior” has the ability to do something a lot of former champions cannot and that’s retire on top. Without taking anything away from his Martinez victory, we should also recognize that “Dragon” was not ranked in the Top 10 and Aldo already lost to a pair of fighters currently holding real estate in the Top 5: Dvalishvili and Petr Yan. Then again, this rematch is probably still on the table at some point.
Either way, Aldo proved he’s still got the goods.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the former champ pass on a UFC contract (for now) in favor of boxing. I’m sure the promotion will be willing to re-sign Aldo whenever he’s ready to return (if that day comes) because he’s still a big name and adds tremendous value to the Brazilian market. As for another run at the title … probably not in the cards, but I’d still pay to see him sling leather with Sean O’Malley anyway.
For more UFC 301 results and highlights click here.