Jose Aldo: UFC will announce an interim lightweight title fight with me soon

According to Jose Aldo, he’s targeted to fight for the interim UFC lightweight championship, and it’s only a matter of time before that’s official.

After Max Holloway won the interim UFC featherweight championship at UFC 206 earlier this month with a win over Anthony Pettis, it sounded like a title unification bout with division titleholder Jose Aldo was penciled in for UFC 208 early next year in Brooklyn, New York. Aldo said just over a week ago that that fight was happening, and UFC president Dana White was heard on the UFC 206 broadcast mentioning “Brooklyn” to Holloway, the main event winner, directly after the bout.

Meanwhile, Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson was being discussed for an interim lightweight title fight next year.

But things change in the world of mixed martial arts, and according to Aldo, the UFC’s featherweight and lightweight title plans have recently been changed. He is not fighting Holloway in February, he said, after all.

“No, the Brooklyn fight is not happening,” Aldo told MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani. “I now expect and believe I will be fighting in early March. Either March 3 or March 4, I can’t remember.”

UFC 209 is scheduled for Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena on March 4.

But Aldo’s targeted fight on that card isn’t versus Holloway. And it’s not even for the featherweight championship, despite being recently promoted to full championship status last month. Instead, Aldo said an interim lightweight title fight including him is in the works.

To add onto that, Aldo claimed that a fighter he was offered to square off with declined the matchup.

“I believe they will soon announce an interim lightweight title fight with me. They’ve been trying to find me an opponent, and — surprise, surprise — at least one has already turned down the fight against me. I’m waiting to see who they will find.

“They’ve asked me not to say anything. I won’t say who it is because it’s a surprise. A guy we never thought would turn it down turned it down, because his father didn’t think it was good. I’m tired of people turning down fights. I want to put some pressure so they’ll take the fight.”