Whether he’s coming off of a win or not, the name of MMA legend José Aldo is always going to carry significant weight in the UFC. His recent loss to Mario Bautista at UFC 307 didn’t seem to hurt the stock of the Brazilian icon at all, partly due to the controversial outcome.
Aldo is always going to be a big draw, especially at home in Brazil, and that makes it easy for him to jump right into big fights even when his last two opponents have been Bautista and Jonathan Martinez.
During his recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, former UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley expressed some interest in facing off with “The King of Rio”. His main focus right now is on securing a rematch with the champion Merab Dvalishvili so he can try to avenge his loss from UFC 306 in September.
However, “Suga” also stated that if this fight doesn’t materialize, getting to share the Octagon with a legend like Aldo would be “f****** crazy”. There is ten spots in the bantamweight rankings between them but given their name value and the match-up, O’Malley vs. Aldo would be a fight that a lot of people would pay to see.
Reacting to an article posted by MMA News about O’Malley’s comments, Aldo made it clear in very few characters that he’s also open to this match-up.
The former featherweight king posted on X, quoting the article and adding two simple emojis to let his fans know what he thinks about the idea of standing across the cage from O’Malley once the former champ is fully recovered from his recent surgery.
