The legendary Jose Aldo, the longest reigning featherweight champion in UFC history, will be inducted into the promotion’s Hall of Fame in the near future. Aldo, who is 36 years old, officially hung up his gloves from MMA last September, following a loss to Merab Dvalishvili in a highly ranked bantamweight match. Had he come away with the W, Aldo may have had the chance to fight for a UFC title once more.
Hailing from Manaus, Brazil, Aldo first made a name for himself in the WEC, where he won his first major championship by KO’ing Mike Brown in 2009. He defended the belt twice before the UFC brought the featherweight division into its fold and crowned Aldo its inaugural champion. During his incredible career, Aldo (31-8) went on an 18-fight win streak from 2006 to 2014 and defended the UFC featherweight title a record seven times.
Unfortunately, his championship run came to an abrupt halt in 2015 when he was knocked out by rival Conor McGregor in just 13 seconds. Aldo regained the title seven months later by beating Frankie Edgar, but lost it again in his next fight to Max Holloway.
Despite the defeats, Aldo is still widely considered the greatest featherweight of all time. In 2019, he dropped to the 135-pound bantamweight division in an attempt to win a second championship belt. He challenged Petr Yan for the vacant belt in 2020, but was defeated via fifth-round TKO.
Aldo will join the UFC Hall of Fame’s “modern wing” of fighters, which includes Forrest Griffin, BJ Penn, Urijah Faber, Ronda Rousey, Michael Bisping, Rashad Evans, Georges St-Pierre, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Daniel Cormier.
