UFC Hall of Famer Jose Aldo is coming out of retirement to take on Jonathan Martinez in a bantamweight fight at UFC 301 on May 4 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Brazilian MMA outlet AG Fight was first to report.
The former featherweight champion, now 37 years old, has been retired for nearly two years after losing to Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 278 in August of 2022. While retired Aldo stayed close to combat sports, including getting into the boxing ring a handful of times since his exit from the octagon. He was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2023.
Despite his other endeavours, Aldo has remained under contract with the UFC and reportedly has one fight left on his deal.
Hard to think of many better ways to cap things off than fighting in his native Brazil for the seventh time in his career, while under the UFC banner.
When Aldo originally retired, he left with a 31-8 record, and had won three fights in a row before his loss to Dvalishvili. “Junior” had one of the most impressive championship reigns in the organization’s history and holds the record for most title defences (seven) in the UFC’s featherweight division.
On the other side, Martinez is currently on a six-fight winning streak, holding a professional record of 19-4. Since the American joined the UFC he’s gone 10-3 and two of his last three fights have ended early via leg-kick TKOs, which are exceptionally rare as there have only been 17 such finishes in UFC history.
The bout has yet to be officially announced by the UFC, so where it will fall on the card remains a mystery. The news of Aldo’s unretiring for UFC 301 came just two days after the promotion announced that men’s flyweight champion and Brazilian Alexandre Pantoja would be putting his belt on the line against Australian challenger Steve Erceg at UFC 301.