Not even one year after what Jose Aldo said was the end of his MMA career, the legendary featherweight was fighting an uphill battle to hold back tears on his way onto the stage in Las Vegas to accept his UFC Hall of Fame induction.
The fact that his retirement from the sport didn’t last two full years — Aldo is far from the first to renege in the combat sports realm — as he returns Saturday at UFC 301 doesn’t mean he saw this coming, even as he made the tearful walk to be feted last July.
“At that point last year, at the ceremony, that wasn’t going through my mind,” said Aldo through an interpreter, during a recent video call with The Post, of a return to the UFC. “I was training boxing and focused on fighting boxing.”
But the desire to return to the octagon after three boxing matches in 2023 — scratching an itch Aldo had for years had been vocal about — reached the point at the start of this year when he and the UFC came together to discuss a comeback.
The fact that “The King of Rio” wound up on the UFC’s return to Rio de Janeiro this weekend wasn’t necessarily the siren song that pulled him back, but it worked out for him all the same that he’ll face Jonathan Martinez in the city he loves — and which loves him back — for his first fight there in five years.
“Actually, when I started messaging Dana [White, UFC CEO,] back in January, I didn’t know when there was going to be a UFC Rio. There were no talks of that,” explains Aldo, who returns as a bantamweight after initially making the drop to 135 pounds in 2019. “… It was really just a really good coincidence that the event in Rio was booked for around this time because it worked out perfectly.”
Aldo (31-8, 18 finishes) was afforded time to get back into the drug testing pool and return to MMA training after a steady diet of boxing, boxing and more boxing for more than a year at the Navy training center in Rio, which he equated to training with a national team.
The fight against Martinez (19-4, 11 finishes) won’t be easy even for the former longtime champion at 145 pounds, as his opponent is seven years younger at age 30 and carries a six-fight win streak — plus wins in 10 of 12 dating back to 2019.
But any win, if Aldo can manage it, would give him a better potential exit point from the sport than his first swan song — a clinch-heavy decision loss to elite bantamweight Merab Dvalishvili in August 2022.
Aldo maintains fact that he left on a loss wasn’t what pulled him back, but he did appreciate the “break” for his mind and body from MMA after competing exclusively in the sport for well over a decade, dating back before his time as WEC featherweight champ before the title was absorbed by the UFC.
“It was a lot of years going hard and going strong and training strong,” Aldo says. “All of that takes a toll, and that break came at a perfect time. After that fight [against Dvalishvili], I had a lot of offers from different places. I said no, and I decided to go into boxing and kind of take a break from MMA because it was needed for my body and my mind. And now, I feel like I have recovered a lot from that.”
The boxing ring treated Aldo rather well in 2023, all things considered, as he won a February exhibition, drew with his former UFC opponent Jeremy Stephens in his pro debut in April and picked up his first official victory in July in Rio.
So, yeah, it’s not as if Aldo hasn’t fought in front of his Brazilian countrymen for a long time, but that doesn’t make it any less special when he walks out to the adoration of fans over the sound of “Run This Town” by Jay-Z, Kanye West and Rihanna just like old times.
“Rio is where I got my start,” Aldo said. “It’s where I live. It’s where I train. It’s where my friends are. So, obviously, very meaningful to be fighting here.
“But in the end, I want to get in there and do my best and show everyone what I’ve been doing.”
If this is, indeed, the actual final fight — one that sticks this time — of Aldo’s Hall of Fame career, he isn’t saying.
First thing’s first means taking care of business against Martinez, and then Aldo and the UFC can hash out what’s next.
“When we started talking to the UFC about this, possibility was doing a new contract, a new agreement,” says Aldo, who still had time remaining on his previous contract but was permitted by the UFC to box. “But what I really want to do right now is just show everyone where I’m at, how I’m doing, do this fight, and then we can sit down with the UFC and see how it’s gonna go.”
