Jose Aldo has retired from mixed martial arts after negotiating a deal to be released from the UFC prior to the final fight on his current contract.
Aldo’s last appearance in the Octagon had come just a few weeks ago when he was left frustrated after Merab Dvalishvili brought an end to his three-fight winning streak by handing him a unanimous decision loss.
That put an end to Aldo’s plan of getting one last title shot and Dvalishvili revealed afterwards that the Brazilian legend told him immediately after the decision was read that he would be retiring.
Then, just a few days ago Aldo’s longtime coach Andre Pederneiras stated in an interview that he felt that Aldo should retire after having one last fight in the promotion, but it seems ‘Scarface’ opted just to pull the plug early rather than take the opportunity to have a swansong in the Octagon.
However, Aldo is now free to pursue other options and it does now leave the door open for the possibility of competing in the boxing ring – a long-time ambition of the 36-year-old.
Aldo bows out of the UFC as a legend of the sport, having compiled seven successful defenses of his featherweight title over a three-and-a-half-year reign, after also having been the champion of the WEC promotion before it’s merger with the UFC.
Before the KO loss to Conor McGregor that ended his first run as champion, Aldo had been beaten just once in 26 fights and he’d go on to briefly win the title again at UFC 200 the following year.
His many wins included a who’s who of the 145lb division, having beaten the likes of Frankie Edgar, Mike Brown, Urijah Faber, Chad Mendes (twice), Kenny Florian, The Korean Zombie and Cub Swanson, to name but a few.
later in his career after losing his title with back-to-back losses against Max Holloway and also suffering a defeat against future champ Alexander Volkanovski, Aldo eventually opted to drop down to bantamweight to make a title push there, but lost against the champion at the time, Petr Yan in 2020.
Aldo compiled a 13-7 record during his UFC run, and retires with an overall career record of 31-8 ‘The King Of Rio’s status as a future UFC hall-of-famer is secured, with many of his peers, including current dominant champion Alexander Volkanovski, hailing him as ‘The featherweight GOAT’.
