Former UFC Featherweight Champion and UFC Hall of Famer, Jose Aldo, has chosen to come out of retirement to compete at UFC 301 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil against bantamweight contender, Jonathan Martinez.

This came as a surprise to many, as Aldo had announced his retirement after his previous fight against Merab Dvalishvili. Although Dvalishvili got the nod in their fight, many argued that Dvalishvili did nothing with the takedown attempts he had against Aldo. On the other hand, Aldo did have a decent performance on the feet when he had the chance.

Up to that point, Aldo had gone 3-3 when he made the choice to go down to bantamweight after his illustrious decade long tenure as the best featherweight in the sport through the WEC and UFC. He had first received a vacant title shot against Petr Yan for his bantamweight debut, which he came up short in, losing via TKO in the fourth round. Although he was able to beat some notable names like Marlon “Chito” Vera, and Rob Font, he was not able to capture another title shot afterward.

This booking against Martinez was not the fight that many were thinking would be booked, should Aldo choose to return for another fight. Dominick Cruz was the fight that many were anticipating, as Cruz ran the bantamweight division at the same time Aldo was running the featherweight division. This fight had been rumored in the past, but the proposed super fight was never finalized.

Martinez, however, has made quite the name for himself since defeating Adrian Yanez via leg kicks in October 2023. Martinez, 29, is also just entering his prime, and dispatching of Yanez the way he did put the entire division on notice. Aldo is a great leg kicker in his own right, but has not used them as often as he did in his WEC career.

This is an extremely dangerous matchup for Aldo, and it is going to be interesting to see if this is a more than a one and done fight for him. If Aldo is able to get the win against Martinez with little damage, it will put him right back in the hunt at bantamweight. If he wants to make one last run for the UFC Bantamweight Title, it should happen as soon as possible, as Aldo is currently 37 years old, and has lots of miles on him at this point in his career