Jose Aldo staying at featherweight for the foreseeable future

Last weekend, UFC 136 featured a unique situation where both champions on the card found themselves fielding questions about moving up/down in weight even after finding a high rate of success in their current divisional home. While Frankie Edgar’s future as a 145 seems to be a given, at least based on comments the fighter has made regarding his willingness to give it a shot, it appears Jose Aldo won’t be moving up to 155 pounds anytime soon.

Aldo’s coach, Andre Pederneiras, recently addressed the issue and made it clear his scintillating student will be staying put based on the number of tests still remaining at featherweight.

“He might be invited to fight at lightweight, but he won’t abandon featherweight, because, I believe, there are a lot of challenges left for him there,” Pederneiras explained in a conversation with Sherdog. He’s just arrived in the UFC and has only fought there twice. Also, I believe many 155-pound fighters will drop to 145 in order to get a title shot they couldn’t get (at lightweight). So, he has a lot of fights to make before thinking about it.”

The Nova Uniao chief also shrugged off any criticism surrounding the toll cutting a significant amount weight could be taking on Aldo’s performances,

“He lost 22 pounds in Toronto and 19 pounds in Houston, but it’s exactly the same thing two days before the fight. People think it’s nonsense, but it’s something he’s done since his first MMA fight and it’s something that a fighter who wants to fight at the highest level needs to get used to.”

Aldo Comments on UFC 136 Outing

Given Aldo’s accomplishments as a featherweight it’s hard to dispute Pederneiras’ take on the situation. “Scarface” holds an overall record 20-1 with past victories over Urijah Faber, Mark Hominick, Mike Brown, and most recently Kenny Florian.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC