Jose Aldo's championship flame burns brighter than ever

SALT LAKE CITY – Jose Aldo left mixed martial arts as a legend of the game in September 2022 when he decided to retire.

Fast forward and Aldo will be competing in the same building where his seemingly last fight took place two years earlier. On Saturday at UFC 307, Aldo (32-8 MMA, 14-7 UFC) fights Mario Bautista on the pay-per-view main card at Delta Center.

Despite his earlier retirement, Aldo said the championship flame within him burns bigger and brighter than ever.

“I train so much, you don’t understand,” Aldo told MMA Junkie and other reporters at a pre-fight press conference on Wednesday. “Every single junior, every new kid there, looks at me and says, 'This guy has accomplished everything.' “He's done everything and is still doing his best, training like crazy.” It is. It's another fighter to be ignited. There is a flame that burns brighter than before. That’s what it takes to be a champion.”

The 38-year-old Aldo is considered by many to be the greatest featherweight in MMA history. So what else is there to prove? What is the motivation?

For Aldo, being a champion is not the ultimate level of greatness.

“Being the champion means being a champion,” Aldo said. “It’s a legacy. It's about being able to look back. That's why I train so hard. That's why I'm sticking with it. This is the fire I want to show people. It's the UFC that's testing me. They want you to prove yourself again and whether you really want it. How bad do you want it? I want to be able to turn around and look back and say, “This is the legacy I left behind.”

In his rematch in May, Aldo looked strong, defeating Jonathan Martinez via unanimous decision. Saturday's fight against Bautista (14-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) is the second in a row in which Aldo, the much bigger name, tests himself against an up-and-coming young competitor.

But that's exactly what it means for Aldo: it's a big test. According to him, the UFC wants to see where he stands in every challenge and it is his job to show them that he is still the championship fighter he was years ago.

“They’re asking me to provide evidence,” Aldo said. “They are asking me to prove myself. I know they're just making her see what's going on. But I think for me, just like the last fight for example, just to prove how much I really want to come back. How much did I want this fight, right? So right now I know it's a level for her. But for me it is another step towards an ultimate goal.”

Aldo's first course of action will be to win. After that, “The King of Rio” hopes the promotion will deem him worthy of the title.

“It doesn’t matter if Mario is at the top, if it’s a champion, if it’s someone at the top of the leaderboard, it doesn’t matter,” Aldo said. “It’s another step towards what I want. It’s a title fight.”

For more information on the card, check out MMA Junkie's UFC 307 event hub.