Dana White: Jose Aldo Must Defend WEC Title ‘Couple More Times’ Before Moving to UFC
Posted by Kris Karkoski on Jun 2, 2010 at 10:00 am ET33 Comments
UFC President Dana White said following Saturday’s UFC 114 event that WEC featherweight champ Jose Aldo, fresh off a dominant win over Urijah Faber in April, must defend the 145-pound title a “couple more times” before moving up to 155-pounds and joining the UFC lightweight division:
(via MMA Fighting)
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I can definitely agree with that
Interesting that he would move to 155 in the UFC and not WEC.
he’s gotta be interested in bigger paydays … I’d be interested to see him vs BJ …
both excellent strikers and wicked on the ground … I think in this case, BJ would try to get it to the mat (for a change) … would be interesting.
I think Justin is implying it’s interesting because it could signal the 155 WEC division not being long for this world…
am I the only one who finds it ironic that most of the talk of 155 is still about BJ Penn like he’s still the champ? (Not singling you out Njchan, we’re all doing it)
While Aldo would undoubtedly be fast-tracked to the 155 title mix, he would probably get one cupcake fight to acclimatize him to the UFC and assuming he won, get a top 5 guy next, then a title shot. One of those last two would likely be BJ. But it won’t happen for a couple years.
That’s correct, Chris, about what I was implying.
As far as BJ goes, I think the general consensus may be that Edgar got the nod in a close fight at UFC 112, but Penn is really the better fighter, and it’s only a matter of waiting until UFC 118 is over for him to be the champ again.
I’m not sure if its ironic, but even most Edgar supporters don’t or shouldn’t reasonably believe Edgar to be the best 155er in the sport, so it makes sense to me that all of the focus should be on BJ Penn, who is the best 155er in the sport…
i don;t get why doesn’t he get the 155 title in WEC then go to the UFC
this is a situation where it’s ok to read between the lines… essentially Dana is implying that by the time he defends his belt a few times there more than likely will not be a WEC 155 division.
If Zuffa kills the WEC 155 weightclass, isn’t that essentially killing the WEC?
I mean how much of a promotion are they going to run with 2 weightclasses?
At some point Zuffa just needs to work out the details and merge the UFC and WEC, and thereby creating 2 new UFC weightclasses [135 & 145] and champions…
Well watching the WEC PPV that’s pretty much what they did. The UFC site had it listed as a UFC(not WEC) event, the announcers were UFC, pretty much everything about the event was UFC except for the smaller cage and smaller fighters. The WEC’s “demise” is coming but it will still continue to live on under a different name.
The issues in the merger are more in the seperate TV deals with Versus(which could be argued that this is no longer the case) and Spike, and the fact that the WEC uses a smaller cage. All of which will be worked out in time I believe.
it would be an interesting addition to the ufc’s 155 division if aldo were to make the jump. very good matchups i would love to see with him… vs gray, kenny, frankie, bj, tyson griffin, tibau, guillard. aldo-guillard would be explosive as hell and probably not make it past two minutes.
aldo did run through mike brown who is a huge 145er, and schooled the wec’s poster child faber. but jumping up to the ufc’s 155 would be very interesting. like i said many good match-ups for him, and it would only add to the talent pool at 155.
I would like to see Albo 1st fight Manny Gamburian – THEN he can vacate the title, assuming he wins…. Then fight Ben Henderson – assuming he is still the champ at 155 in WEC.. THEN if he beats him, he can move to the UFC… but thats just my opinion…
And if you READ THE TITLE, you can see that he will likely fight Gamburyan, since he “must defend wec title ‘couple more times’ before moving to UFC.”
If Gamburyan can’t get to #1 contender in that time, he doesn’t deserve the shot. Period.
Regarding Benderson….the WEC won’t have a 155 division for long. It’s entirely possible Aldo will never get the chance to challenge for that belt because it won’t exist. And I would rather see Benderson v Aldo in the UFC than in WEC any day.
Especially since those are the only 2 I can see having any real success at 155 in the UFC.
With Shane Roller’s size(5’10- 5’11″ depending on where you look) and pedigree… give him some more time and he may cause problems for anyone at lightweight.
well i DID READ THE TITLE… and if YOU would have READ MY POST… I said in MY OPINION he should fight manny THEN henderson.. i did NOT say anywhere that.. i think the wec should talk about having him fight manny like it wasnt a forgone conclusion….
settle down before you make comments like that man… take a breath
Oh and if that wasnt clear enough… I listed 2 names for the guys i think he should fight… as the 2 mentioned in the title.. because ya know.. the 2 dana could be refering to would be manny and a 145er to be named later… because he said he needs to defend his 145 belt a couple more times, so i said IMO he should just fight 1 more 145 and 1 155 then move… better?
Why should he abandon his title belt as you seem to want him to? Beat Manny like a borrowed mule, then give up his title to challenge for a 155 title he will then presumably abandon in a rush for the UFC?
Sometimes I wonder why I bother.
wellll…. if you want to fight the best, you want a challenge, you do just that… you move up 1 weight class… like he has expressed… (in fighting penn, edgar, etc…) and to do that… he would have to vacate his belt… because to me, its a little pointless to beat manny, then another guy… go to the UFC.. fight there, then back to the WEC to defend his 145 belt… or maybe im just dumb and he should do just that….
Or maybe Manvil “The Anvil” will beat him and that will put an end to all the talk of Aldo moving up.
anything is possible….i dont think too many people thought he would beat mike brown… atleast i didnt..
My point is this: Ben Henderson is no better than the middle of the road guys he would face upon entering the UFC anyway. Bothering with that fight at the WEC level is nothing short of pointless.
Finish cleaning house at 145, then move to the UFC. Bothering with the WEC’s 155s is the giant hole in your argument.
Going to Justin’s point…if he can’t beat Gamburyan, then that shnows that he won’t be anything but a 3-3 cut after 2 years in the UFC and then he can stay as long as he would like or the WEC continues to exist, whichever is shorter.
Actually it doesnt put a hole in my arguement.. you actually helped it more… Ben Henderson is middle of the road… but he is 10 lbs heavier… if aldo struggles with him, or even loses, then that shows he is not ready for 155 let alone the UFC… you need to test yourself small in that weight class.. dip your toe in the water… dont just jump into the deep end without looking…
bj is still the top guy at 155
Why can’t Aldo hold both belts in WEC? Then when the UFC absorbs the LW, he can move over.
Jose isnt dumb!! he didnt finish faber because he wanted to live another night. those people would have killed him if he would have smashed faber or that check dana cut him would have bounced. i think the fight was fix actually
Perhaps one of the most asinine things I’ve read in quite awhile…
smitty thats one of the dumbest statements ever made
I dunno I hold it’s still behind Kimbo’s “city of Japan” and Custer’s “there’s only a couple of them”
Is this “post” the frenZy posting equivalent of us getting punked or something?
Where’s the love for Ben Henderson? ‘Middle of the road’? Really…?
Its possible that “middle of the road” is SLIGHTLY off, but not by much.
Take an objective look at the UFC 155 weightclass, and tell me who you actually see Benderson beating.
Penn? Florian? Maynard? Edgar? No chance.
I also wouldn’t like Benderson’s chances against Diego Sanchez if he’d stayed at or returned to 155, and even a guy like Clay Guida would probably be all over Benderson like ugly on an ape.
Factoring that in, how much “love” can Benderson be reasonably shown?
Supporting the guy is one thing, thinking that he’s jump into the UFC 155 mix is quite another…
Carlos Condit, Brian Stann, Steve Cantwell… all former WEC champs and only one is even close to a top 10 ranking… You can make a case for Sonnen but he got a huge wake up call in his return to the UFC and plus this is his 2nd stint in the UFC.
The WEC is like AAA baseball at 155 and Ben Henderson is the big fish in a small pond… but big fish are the first choice of sharks and the UFC 155 division is filled with more sharks than the discovery channel.