Jose Aldo’s comeback fight against Jonathan Martinez back in May wasn’t a one-off as he’s now signed up to fight Mario Bautista at UFC 307 in Salt Lake City, Utah on October 5th.
Despite retiring from the sport a couple of years to pursue his interest in boxing, the 37-year-old Aldo still looked like his old self against Martinez a few months ago, ending his opponents six-fight winning streak with a convincing unanimous decision victory.
at the time it wasn’t clear if Aldo was just looking to honor the final fight on his UFC contract and have the chance to bow out in front of his home fans in Rio, Brazil, but instead he appears to have decided to make another run in the 135lb division.
Aldo will be going up against another challenging opponent in the 31-year-old Bautista, who, like Martinez, comes into the fight on a six-fight unbeaten run, beating the likes of Ricky Simon, Brian Kelleher and Benito Lopez along the way to take the No.12 spot on the bantamweight ladder – 4 spots below Aldo.
Aldo vs. Bautista joins a UFC 307 card that will also feature a women’s bantamweight fight between current champion Raquel Pennington and Julianna Pena, while Movsar Evloev vs Aljamain Sterling, Chris Curtis vs. Kevin Holland and Marina Rodriguez vs. Iasmin Lucindo are also confirmed for the event.