Former two-time UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo announced his retirement from fighting in September 2022, a month after losing to Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 278. His retirement announcement came on the same day as the birth of his son.
Aldo had one fight left on his UFC contract, but the fight promotion game him permission to pursue opportunities in other sports, particularly boxing. On May4, at UFC 301, Aldo will come out of retirement to take on Jonathan Martinez in a bantamweight bout.
“I had been focused on boxing. I took some vacation at the end of last year and in January started talking to my coach about possibly making a comeback,” Aldo told SHAK MMA. “I always want to be the champion and I always want to fight for that belt. My body is good and I feel ready for it.”
“I needed my time off and I had my time off,” Aldo continued. “I’m recovered and now I’m back in.”
The UFC 301 fight with Martinez is the final fight on Aldo’s current UFC contract. He was offered a new deal but decided to decline it.
“This is the last fight on my contract. When I started talking to Sean [Shelby] and Dana [White] back in January, we had talked about signing a new deal but I decided against it because I want to go in there and I need to show them, myself, and everyone where I’m at, what I can still do, and how I can still perform,” Aldo said.
“We have a lot of offers. We could have a boxing match lined up quickly if we wanted to do that as well. So I told them, let’s wait. Let’s let me go in there and put on a performance and then we’ll talk after that to see if we’ll renew a deal or not.”
Aldo has receive lucrative offers from other mixed martial arts promotions. While his future remains uncertain, Aldo doesn’t see himself fighting MMA for anyone other than the UFC.
“We’ve been reached out by other organizations and offered big million-dollar purses and things like that, but it’s really not a matter of a financial decision,” Aldo said. “I needed to have that break. I wanted to pursue my dream of boxing and now I’m coming back. I never really thought of fighting MMA anywhere else other than the UFC. We just have to see where I”m at right now with the fight and kind of see where I’m going to go from there.”
https://www.mmaweekly.com/news/jose-aldo-explains-why-hes-coming-out-of-retirement-at-ufc-301