Jose Aldo was adamant he wouldn’t be fighting for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) anytime soon after he expressed his displeasure with the way the fight promotion was handling Conor McGregor’s seemingly endless title shots.
But after "Notorious" was stripped of his Featherweight title -- which he earned by knocking out Aldo at UFC 194 -- "Junior" seems to have had a change of heart.
During a recent media conference call (audio replay here) to promote the upcoming interim featherweight title fight between Anthony Pettis and Max Holloway — which is set to pop off from inside the Air Canada Centre at UFC 206 on Dec. 10, 2016 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada — Director of International Communications for UFC, Matt Radmonovich, confirmed that Aldo would face the winner of the bout sometime in 2017.
"We have Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis, who will face off for the interim featherweight title and the right to face current undisputed champion Jose Aldo sometime in 2017 to unify the titles," he declared.
While it may have been a foregone conclusion, the announcement confirms that Aldo will in fact put his professional soccer career goals to the side (momentarily) to handle his business inside the Octagon.
Granted, he may not have secured his 145-pound strap the way he wanted, but at the end of the day, it’s not his fault Conor is a "coward."
The move to strip McGregor didn’t sit too well with Team "Notorious," but it seems the promotion may have been prompted to do so after Daniel Cormier was bounced from his headlining title fight against Anthony Johnson at UFC 206 in order to "save" the card by making Pettis vs. Holloway for the interim strap, which was recently held by Aldo.
It’s quite a mess, but it seems the waters will get that much clearer once the dust settles in Toronto, as Aldo intends to make his return to the cage after last defeating Frankie Edgar at UFC 200 this past summer.
Yay?