After Florian, Aldo Open to ‘Dream’ Fights at 155, 135

Joe Aldo says he would welcome bouts against other UFC divisional champions. | Photo: Dave Mandel

Aldo, 24, has already verbally agreed to make his next title defense against Kenny Florian, who earned the shot in his 145-pound debut by outpointing world-ranked Diego Nunes. After that, however, if desired by the UFC and agreed upon by his management, Aldo says he’d be more than happy to shift in weight.

“It’s not only about my wishes,” Aldo explained to Sherdog.com. “My coach, Andre Pederneiras, and managers Ed Soares and ‘Joinha’ [Jorge Guimaraes] are also involved, so it has to come from them, as well as from [UFC President] Dana White and [matchmaker] Joe Silva. I’m a fighter; I’ve gotta do my job well and always try to give the crowd a show. If it was only about my wishes, I’d love to move my weight up and down to fight, but I’m confident when they believe it’s a good time, I’ll be asked to face this new challenge.”

Aside from taking part in his own, Aldo also showed himself to be generally in favor of super-fights, admitting that he would like to see middleweight king Anderson Silva take on light heavyweight champ Jon Jones, or Silva against welterweight ruler Georges St. Pierre.

“I’m in favor of that because I think the promotion, the public and the media would gain a lot with [super-fights],” the Nova Uniao fighter opined. “A lot of fans want to see champions fight champions from other divisions. If people could find a way to make that, to get a consensus, I think there’s a place for that in the UFC. For me, as I said, it would be a dream come true to test myself between the lighter weights.”

Before any move, though, Aldo must defend his crown against Florian. After six weeks away from training, the champion is getting back to perfect shape. Now completely healed is the shoulder injury which he discovered after his five-round battle with Mark Hominick at UFC 129.

“I’m just waiting on the date [to face Florian],” said Aldo. “I returned to my training routines after a good period of rest, and I’m getting back into shape with boxing, jiu-jitsu and muay Thai. I’m not exactly focused on Florian. I’ll wait to be, like, seven weeks out from the fight to figure out a strategy to beat him.”