Jose Aldo vs. Max Holloway featherweight title unification fight planned for UFC 212 in Brazil
Max Holloway has been wanting to know “Where’s Jose ‘Waldo’?” The answer appears to be that he can find him in a few months in Brazil.
UFC President Dana White told ESPN.com‘s Brett Okamoto that UFC interim featherweight champion Holloway (17-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) indeed will fight featherweight champ Jose Aldo (26-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) in a title unification bout, though White didn’t reveal a date or location. But according to reports from Combate and FloCombat.com, the fight will headline UFC 212 in Rio de Janeiro on June 3.
UFC officials have not yet announced the fight.
Holloway, No. 2 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA featherweight rankings, said not long after winning the interim belt that he’d defend it as many times as needed if Aldo continued to be unavailable to fight and called out other top featherweights.
But it’s Holloway who has been sitting out mending after winning the interim belt at UFC 206 against Anthony Pettis in December. Since the Pettis fight, Holloway has been pushing his “Jose Waldo” hashtag, as in “Where’s (W)Aldo?” He told MMAjunkie a week ago that he had returned to training and was waiting on one more doctor visit to clear his ankle to fight.
Aldo was the UFC’s only featherweight champion, coming over in the merger with the WEC, until Conor McGregor knocked him out in just 13 seconds at UFC 194 in December 2015. Before that, the Brazilian hadn’t lost in more than 10 years.
After his setback against McGregor to surrender his 145-pound title, he won the interim belt against Frankie Edgar at UFC 200 when it was clear McGregor was going to fight Nate Diaz at welterweight a second straight time. In November, McGregor won the lightweight title to become a two-division champion, and the UFC stripped him of his featherweight belt two weeks later and promoted Aldo to full champ again, then set up Holloway vs. Pettis for the interim belt.
Holloway has won 10 straight fights since a decision loss to McGregor in McGregor’s second UFC fight in August 2013. He has seven stoppages and three fight-night bonuses over that run.
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