Jose Aldo Aims To End Career On Top, As Champion

As the only 145-pound champion in UFC history, dominant featherweight and pound-for-pound king Jose Aldo is gearing up for the biggest fight of his life, a title defense against Irish sensation Conor McGregor at July 11’s UFC 189.

Fans were worried when news broke that Aldo had suffered a fractured rib, but it turned out to just be a bone bruise and it seems as if the champion is going to fight, as he aims to add to his decorated legacy.

Being the biggest fight of the year, and one of the biggest in history, UFC 189’s main event has been given more promotion by the UFC than any other fight, and has seen more hype than any other fight, but not necessarily because of “Scarface”. Most of the hype and buildup surrounding the fight is regarding the brash, and outspoken knockout artist in the “Notorious” McGregor.

However, that’s how Aldo likes it. Speaking with FOX Sports recently, the champion mentioned that he doesn’t care who the UFC is promoting, the only thing that matters is that he’s the champion. “Scarface” added that the promotion doesn’t guarantee anything, but the champion does:

“I’m the dominant champion. I’m keeping this title for years, I’m always at the top of the division and at the top of the pound for pound ranking, so that makes it big. But I don’t care about it if Dana promotes the other athlete or not. The important thing is that I’m the champion. The promotion doesn’t guarantee nothing, the champion does and it doesn’t matter if they are promoting or not.”

In a sport where things can change as fast they do in MMA, nothing is guaranteed and we have seen numerous once-deemed dominant champions fall over the past few years including all-time greats Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, and most recently Cain Velasquez. However, there is one all-time great who ended his career on top and as a champion and that would be former welterweight kingpin Georges St. Pierre.

GSP vacated his title in 2013 after a decorated history of ruling the 170-pound division. Aldo knows all of this is true, and thats why he aims to be like St. Pierre. Continuing on, the champion stated that when the time comes, he wants to leave on top as the champion, and that’s what he focuses on:

“I’ve seen champions that didn’t do well in their careers in the end. I want to leave at the top, as champion, like Georges St-Pierre did. That’s what I focus on. It doesn’t matter who the opponent is, if I already fought him or not, if I’m going to, when I stop, when I look back, I will see that I fought the best and did pretty well.”

Will Aldo be able to continue his reign on top at UFC 189?