Trash talking has never been Jose Aldo's strong suit, but his proficiency at the art of fighting allowed for people to get past that.
The featherweight division may never see the likes of Aldo's dominance again. After spending over six years as a world champion, winning 10 straight championship fights and remaining undefeated for nearly a decade, Aldo is a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame.
He was never a huge PPV draw, but fans of combat were always rewarded for tuning in to see Aldo fight. What you lost out on in promotion and sound bites, you usually gained with a high-level display of mixed martial arts.
That was the legacy that he seemed destined to leave behind. It was all set for him to be remembered as a true martial artist, rather than a charismatic showman. He was a fighter's fighter, who was dedicated to constant improvement in order to reach that unreachable destination known as perfection.
Then, everything started to go south for poor 'Scarface' when he got booked to defend his belt against the division's first legitimate superstar. The world tour broke him, then the patented Celtic cross crumbled what remained to dust.
All of a sudden he became a bit of a laughing stock.
https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/826343985857847296
After putting on one of his finest ever performances against Frankie Edgar at UFC 200, Aldo had an embarrassing few weeks throwing his toys out of the pram when he was denied a Red Panty Night.
He requested a
contract termination,
threatened legal action and even hinted that he would be
willing to intentionally lose fights to see out the end of his contract. Thankfully though, all of that has appeared to die down and he's ready to go back to work.
He's returned to sit atop the UFC's 145 lb throne and although he's still clearly determined to get the chance to exact revenge on Conor McGregor for that 13-second annihilation, he seems to have taken a hiatus from mentioning 'the Notorious'.
At least that's judging by a recent interview with
Combate in which he called out interim champion Max Holloway.
"Show up in Flamengo Beach, I'm there. I am ready to fight any day. I was training for it but we'll see. It's like I said, just show up in the beach that I'll be there."
Holloway had been smack talking Aldo at every available opportunity for supposedly ducking him, but the Hawaiian then ruled himself out of a unification bout with
injury.
He also criticised Aldo for accepting an interim lightweight title fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov, which ultimately fell through when Tony Ferguson signed on the dotted line. However, Aldo had an answer for that too.
"I was very close of it. We were jumping the line there when we booked a fight for March 4th, with Khabib (Nurmagomedov), but his father refused. After that we tried with Ferguson, he asked for more money and UFC didn't accept. So it was very close to happening. Now I don't know how things are, now we get back again out of the line."
He may be back out of the Red Panty Night line and the logical next title challenger is out of action for the immediate future, but at least Aldo's reputation isn't taking any more damage. Those comments were a welcome change from what he had been spouting for the past year or so.
