Jose Aldo Plans To ‘Smother’ Max Holloway In UFC 218 Rematch
After losing his UFC featherweight title by way of third-round stoppage to Max Holloway at last June’s UFC 212 in Brazil, Jose Aldo’s longtime head coach, Andre Pederneiras, said that a leg injury was the reason that Aldo shied away from throwing his patented leg kicks in addition to playing a role into Aldo seemingly tiring early on in the bout.
Now just a few weeks away from their UFC 218 rematch, which Aldo accepted on short notice, the former champion said that he’s in ‘perfect’ condition:
“I’m in perfect conditions,” Aldo told MMAFighting.com. “There are always small injuries, but nothing that takes any weapon away. I’m kicking, punching, I’m doing everything now. There are no serious injuries. You can expect the best kickboxing, the best muay thai. I will walk forward the entire time. I want to kick a lot in this fight. I want to put my hands as well, everything I learned recently, I want to go in there and do it.”
UFC 218 is set to take place on Dec. 2, 2017 in Detroit, Michigan. Aldo was originally scheduled to rematch Ricardo Lamas later in the month, but he stepped up to meet Holloway after Frankie Edgar suffered an injury and was forced off of the card.
Not only has Aldo promised that his best weapons will be on display, but he also vowed to ‘smother’ Holloway from ‘beginning to the end’:
“I’ll smother him from beginning to the end, and he will have to worry about his defense. I always saw the attack as the best defense, so I was holding myself back, thinking ‘he has this strong point,’ and that harmed me. Not anymore. I want to go in there and be myself, be who I always were. That’s what I want.
“If you fight all the time you can lose one day, so (the loss) is not stuck in my throat,” he added. “The belt is no longer with me, so that makes me more motivated to train and get it back. Holloway is just another one that I will win.”
Do you expect “Scarface” to return in peak form and reclaim the 145-pound title?
