Jose Aldo picked up where he left off.
Despite taking a 21-month sabbatical to test his boxing prowess with the UFC Hall of Famer, “The King of Rio” looked as sharp as ever on Saturday, defeating Jonathan in a pillar-to-bolt win in the UFC. He surpassed Martinez. 301's sub-main event. Aldo is currently the hottest free agent in MMA and appears to have plenty of options in front of him both inside and outside of the boxing world. The only thing for sure is that Aldo is clearly not done yet. The 37-year-old spoke openly about his thoughts on making another shot at the UFC bantamweight title during Saturday night's post-fight press conference.
But now that he's back, can Aldo quickly become a top-five bantamweight in the world?
According to research…
It was a close fight, but in the end, MMA Fighting's seven-person voting panel placed Aldo outside of the top five, making his comeback debut at No. 6 in the aftermath of UFC 301. Still, that's nothing to sneeze at. Aldo was ranked No. 5 in the bantamweight rankings when he retired from MMA in August 2022, but 21 months later, the weight class has been upended by the rise of Sean O'Malley and Patchy Mix. It basically maintains that position even now.
It doesn't hurt that at 135 pounds Aldo's resume is still strong. He has big wins over Marlon Vera, Pedro Munoz, Rob Font, and now Martinez, and his only loss since 2020 came in a competitive bout to top-five contender Merab. It is. Dvalishvili and Petr Yan.
MMA fighters, what do you think? Did I understand this correctly? Was this wrong? Is the Brazilian ageless wonder still the elite of the elite at 135 pounds?
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