‘Lil Heathen’ First, ‘Money’ Mayweather Next

MMA News

‘Lil Heathen’ First, ‘Money’ Mayweather Next

Photo by Buda Mendes/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

An exhibition boxing bout with Floyd Mayweather is still in the cards for Jose Aldo, and ‘Scarface’ hopes a win over ‘Lil Heathen’ will secure it.

Jose Aldo is focused on his upcoming boxing bout against Jeremy Stephens at Gamebred Boxing 4 this weekend. But he has his eye on a much bigger prize after that: Floyd Mayweather.

According to Aldo’s manager, negotiations have been in an advanced state for a while now. A win over “Lil Heathen” could seal the deal. “Scarface” discussed the potential meeting of combat sports greats at a pre-fight press conference in Milwaukee.

“Yeah, we’ve been negotiating that fight for a good while,” Aldo said (via MMA Junkie). “Floyd already knows about the fight. I first need to think about my fight this Saturday, and then I can see what’s going to happen. But yeah, we’ve been in negotiations for a long time, and that fight could go down in Saudi Arabia.”

Floyd Mayweather has been extremely busy in retirement. While he refused to take any more ‘real’ fights in order to keep his 50-0 record nice and round, he’s competed in five exhibition matches thus far, with many more on the way. Mayweather has declared 2023 will feature five more ‘heists’ in five countries.

Jose Aldo would certainly be a more interesting opponent than most of Mayweather’s other exhibitions.

“We’re going to do the work on Saturday, and after that we’ll sit down again with everyone to book the fight,” Aldo declared.

If Aldo does get the Mayweather fight, he’ll have to live up to the expectations he set when panning Conor McGregor for his “Money” performance.

“It was a money fight,” Aldo said flatly back in 2017. “A moral victory would have been taking on an active boxer, a champion, and then fought him. And then you’d see how he would barely last a round. Because it’s an entirely different sport. We need to put ourselves in our places.”

Gamebred Boxing 4 goes down Saturday April 1st from the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and also features Roy Jones Jr. vs. Anthony Pettis. Fans interested in seeing a night of MMA fighters boxing can buy the pay-per-view through UFC Fight Pass for $49.99.

https://www.mmamania.com/2023/3/31/23664502/jose-aldo-is-hoping-floyd-mayweather-is-next-after-he-boxes-up-jeremy-stephens