Jose Aldo Saddened By Prospect Of Not Retiring UFC Champion

For most of his UFC career, Jose Aldo reigned as a UFC titleholder.

However, at this point in his career, with just a few fights left, Aldo is without a belt. While he plans on hanging up his gloves for good soon, the prospect of retiring without a title around his waist saddens the Brazilian legend (via MMA Junkie):

“I get very sad about that, you know,” Aldo said. “I dreamed of retiring as a champion, if you see my previous interviews, I always talked about that, that I wanted to go out as a champion and enjoy life a bit. But it’s not what’s been happening.

“I think it’s very hard for them to match me up against Max for a third time, so this frustrates my plans a little, my desire of being champion and leaving as champion. But that’s part of it.

“Now we don’t have this possibility, we’ll see what happens in the future. But it’s one step at a time. The first step is to beat Renato and we’ll see what happens as the year goes by.”

Aldo was introduced to the UFC as the first-ever 145-pound champion. He went undefeated for four years before being stopped for the first time by Conor McGregor in 2015. After reclaiming the featherweight throne, he was once again knocked off in back-to-back fights with curret division king, Max Holloway.

Now, Aldo has just a few fights left on his UFC deal. The first of his last three will take place this weekend (Sat. February 2, 2018) in his native Brazil. He’ll be taking on Renato Moicano in the co-main event of UFC on ESPN+ 2.