Jose Aldo Reacts To UFC 237 Loss: ‘I Never Fought So Badly’

It’s safe to say former UFC champ Jose Aldo didn’t have his best performance against rising star Alexander Volkanovski at last weekend’s (Sat., May 11, 2019) UFC 237 from Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It’s time Aldo finally reacts to the loss.

The Brazilian great lost an uninspiring, one-sided decision to ‘The Great,’ effectively trouncing his title hopes for the time being. Aldo had bounced back into contention with back-to-back defeats of Renato Moicano and Jeremy Stephens. But his UFC future is now up in the air.

Aldo did not address the performance at the post-fight presser in Rio. He did, however, issue a statement on the loss on his official Instagram (translated via MMA Fighting) today. Aldo thanked his fans and team before blasting his own effort on Saturday:

“But I never fought so badly in my life,” Aldo wrote. “No excuses because that’s not who I am, but I know what I can do and I know my talent, and I can’t do that. Not taking the merits away from my opponent, he did his fight, but I’m upset with myself, and I transfer (all the blame) to myself.”

Aldo’s fighting future is a bit of a tentative subject. He has one fight left on his UFC contract. The featherweight legend hinted that he may not fight in all of 2020, but did leave the UFC’s return to Brazil in November as a possible date.

That prospective return is now up in the air due to his loss to Volkanovski. No matter what happens, Aldo remains one of the finest featherweights in UFC history, perhaps even still being the greatest. That won’t change with his next fight regardless of what happens.

But his many fans would certainly love to see him go out with a better performance than what we saw Saturday.