Salt Lake City — In his second fight since returning from retirement earlier this year, former UFC featherweight champ Jose Aldo continues his run at bantamweight, this time facing Mario Bautista at UFC 307.
After notching a win over Jonathan Martinez in May, it’s another up-and-comer for Aldo, who dabbled in boxing during his time away from the octagon.
“I got Jonathan last time, and now Mario. It doesn’t matter what the opponent is in this organization. I’m going to fight whoever I need to fight, and do whatever I need to do to go for a title,” exclaimed Aldo (32-8), speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press at Wednesday’s UFC 307 media day. “And I approach them with the same thing, the same level of respect. It doesn’t matter who I’m fighting, I’m going to do the same training, I’m going to prepare as much as I can, and I’m always going to be ready and prepared for whoever I need to fight.”
Those who have found surprise at Aldo fighting younger, lesser-known foes might have expected something like the Dominick Cruz match-up that was floated earlier this year. That fight never came to fruition, but given the pair’s status as lighter-weight pioneers dating back to WEC, the idea certainly had fans excited.
“I think if you go back into the fights that we had in the past, I mean I’m one of the last remnants of the WEC and everything. We put on such exciting fights, and if there are lighter weights today in the UFC, this is the reason why,” suggested Aldo. “Obviously until everything unified under Zuffa. Having guys like us- myself, Manny [Gamburyan], Dominick Cruz, Urijah [Faber] as well, Demetrious Johnson, we’re the people that made this happen, and putting on exciting fights is one of the reasons.”
Fighting on the old blue WEC canvas against a fighter like Cruz, meanwhile, would have been explosive for Aldo.
“Right now we’re focused on different moments of our lives, so it’s not going to happen,” he noted, before addressing the idea of the UFC bringing back the blue canvas. “Damn, that’s not going to go past the first round, man. I see that blue canvas right there, and we’re just going to go at it. It just brings a different level of excitement, just having the blue canvas.”
Watch the full UFC 307 media day appearance by Jose Aldo above.
