LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Jose Aldo[/autotag] has only positive comments about his first cut down to the bantamweight division and insists everything is going smoothly ahead of Friday’s UFC 245 official weigh-in.
After being a career-long featherweight and the longest reigning UFC champion in the division’s history, Aldo (28-5 MMA, 10-4 UFC) decided to make a drastic change by moving down a weight class.
It was a surprising development, because the Brazilian has long said if he were to make any change, it would be going up to lightweight. He’s set to try out 135 pounds for a matchup with Marlon Moraes (22-6-1 MMA, 4-2 UFC), though, and although everyone is analyzing Aldo’s physique ahead of the event, he said there’s no concerns to be had.
“If you guys can see my face everything went amazing,” Aldo told MMA Junkie through an interpreter at UFC 245 media day on Thursday. “I’m really excited, I’m really anxious actually to fight and perform. As you guys can see I can make weight very easy. Tomorrow morning I’m going to be the first one on the scale.”
After having his legendary title reign stopped by Conor McGregor exactly four years ago today at UFC 194, Aldo has had ups and downs in his career. He’s climbed back to the mountaintop, but in recent years especially the results have been inconsistent.
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According to Aldo, the change in weight class forced him to explore corners of the sport he’s never encountered in his lengthy career. Through those means, he said he rediscovered his true love for the fight game.
“I believe in my team, I trust my team and we’ve got a nutritionist and we’ve been working diligently with a nutritionist,” Aldo said. “The weight cut has been the easiest I’ve had in my life. I’ve never felt that strong, that fast. It reignited a new Jose Aldo. The old Jose Aldo is dead. It’s a new person, give me new goal. I want to continue to make history and be a legend of the sport. We’ll be the champ at 135.”
Although he has yet to officially make the weight, Aldo said he feels as though he should’ve been fighting at bantamweight long ago. The process has allowed him to rediscover his youth, he said, and that not only means problems for his opponent Moraes on Saturday’s pay-per-view card at T-Mobile Arena, but for the entire division, too.
“It reignited my passion to be champion,” Aldo said. “The last time I felt this quick and this explosive I was in the WEC so many years ago. I feel very young, I feel reborn like a new Jose Aldo. It’s the best thing I could’ve done. I’m reignited and I have the passion to be here. Mark my words: I’ll be the next 135-pound champion of the world.”
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