USA TODAY: Jose Aldo next great Brazilian hope for UFC

(This story appears in today’s edition of USA TODAY.)

The best news for UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo might be that Anderson Silva can’t keep fighting forever.

Brazil’s most famous fighter eventually has to retire, and when he does it could be Aldo (23-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) who fills his shoes.

Regardless of whether Silva (33-5 MMA, 16-1 UFC) regains his UFC middleweight title when he has a rematch with new champ Chris Weidman at the end of the year, Brazil’s king of MMA superstardom is closing in on 40.

Aldo is 26, and in excellent position to assume the throne once Silva’s fighting days are done.

That’s the hope, anyway, both for Aldo and for the UFC. After another successful title defense at UFC 163 in Rio de Janeiro, however, it’s tough to tell whether Aldo can inspire the same fierce passion in one of the UFC’s key markets.

In 2011, when Silva led the charge for the UFC’s first Brazilian event in more than a decade, tickets sold out in less than two hours. The return to the same venue two years later revealed clumps of empty seats on the pay-per-view broadcast, with UFC executive Marshall Zelaznik telling USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com this latest event was probably within 1,200-1,300 seats of a sellout.

With four events down and three more planned in Brazil through 2013, that could cause the UFC some concern. With Silva facing an uncertain future, the UFC could use a Brazilian star to reignite a fan base it has tried to cater to in recent years.

“I don’t know that we can say things are slowing down (in Brazil),” Zelaznik said. “Obviously, we didn’t sell out. … We got darn close. It’s hard to put your finger on it, but I think for us it’s a successful event.”

It certainly was for Aldo, though maybe not in the way he’d hoped. He came in as a sizable favorite over Korean challenger Chan Sung Jung, “The Korean Zombie,” and seemed to be in total control of the bout heading into the fourth round.

When Jung suffered a shoulder injury during a punching exchange early in the round, however, he was left helpless to defend himself against Aldo’s onslaught, resulting in a TKO finish for the champ, his fifth consecutive successful UFC title defense.

That somewhat disappointing ending didn’t exactly add to the legend of the UFC’s first and only 145-pound champ, but at least there are challenges aplenty on the horizon for him. The UFC’s featherweight class is more robust than ever, and there’s talk that Aldo might move go up a division to lightweight, a prospect he seems to favor.

“I would love it, but this is (up to UFC matchmaker) Joe Silva,” Aldo said on the FUEL TV post-fight show. “But if he (gave) me the opportunity, I would go there and fight.”

And if he could become a champion in that division as well, who knows? The UFC might have a new Brazilian superstar, and not a moment too soon.

For complete coverage of UFC 163, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.