Salt Lake City — Bantamweight Mario Bautista wasn’t necessarily expecting to land a fight with UFC legend and former champion Jose Aldo, though that is exactly who he’s facing at this Saturday’s UFC 307.
The Salt Lake City showdown will be Aldo’s second since returning from retirement earlier this year. As for Bautista, he’s won six straight, most recently against Ricky Simon at the start of the year.
“I was supposed to fight Cody [Garbrandt, in 2023], when I won my last fight I called out Rob Font, that wasn’t going on and you know my last fight was in January and it was getting to the point where it was like, ‘I’ll get anyone outside the top 15, I don’t care I just need to fight,'” Bautista noted during Wednesday’s UFC 307 media day. “So when I got Jose Aldo I was pretty excited, pretty happy. Ranked, and a UFC legend.”
While happy with the match-up, Bautista admits that he’s been surprised by Aldo’s approach to his return, which has seen him fight a pair up-and-comers in Jonathan Martinez and himself.
“I was pretty surprised to know he’s taking on these young guys. You would think he’d come back and fight someone at his age, caliber, or following, you know someone like maybe Henry Cejudo or something like that. Props to him, he’s willing to take the risk.”
There’s no fanboy moment, no issue with being starstruck for Mario Bautista with this fight however. After all, he’s trained alongside a couple of extremely famous UFC champions in Sean O’Malley and Benson Henderson.
“Luckily the gym I train at, I train with Sean [O’Malley], trained with Sean before, with Benson [Henderson] for the past 10 years. Benson, he’s a 55’er, he’s not taking it easy on me. So I never really had that feeling about famous people, I guess I can say,” explained Bautista. “I just know they’re normal people, everyday lives, and that’s about it. We’re all fighters, we all bleed, that’s it.”
Now in his 30s, Bautista also touched on why everything is clicking for him at the moment.
“I’m on the stride. I think everything is coming together,” he observed. “I’m 31 years old, I think all those hard rounds I’d done in my 20s, everything I’ve learned, now coming with my smarts of how to use it, I’m in my prime right now. I’m ready to go.”
Watch the full UFC 307 media day appearance by Mario Bautista above.
