Jose Aldo may pull out of UFC 125
Jose Aldo was given the first ever UFC featherweight (145lb) title in a special ceremony at UFC 123 on Saturday 20 November, but late Tuesday news was released claiming that he may pull out of his first scheduled
title defence at UFC 125 on 1 January.
News first came out from the Twitter of mixed martial arts journalist Jeremy Botter, who wrote that Aldo had “withdrawn from his UFC 125 co-main event bout with Josh Grispi” because of a compacted vertebrae.
But Josh Gross, who writes for ESPN, then updated the story, saying that Aldo may fight after all, but that his management were pressuring him not to. Aldo took an MRI after it was clear that he wasn’t at
full strength in training, with lower power levels and tingling in his arms. The doctors have reportedly urged a month’s rest to recover, which would severely disrupt his training.
"He's heartbroken, But he said he doesn't care about the injury and he'll fight," Jorge Guimaraes, one of the fighter’s representatives told ESPN.
The question now will be whether Aldo can convince his trainers to let him stay in the match, or whether he’ll be forced to delay the first ever UFC featherweight title match.
Aldo has yet to fight in the UFC. He is currently the World Extreme Cagefighting featherweight champion and the undisputed number one in the world in his weight class.
Recently, the UFC announced that the WEC, which is owned by the same company as the UFC, would be merged into the UFC, with the merger creating two new UFC weight classes, featherweight and bantamweight
(135lb.) The UFC chose to honour the WEC’s belt and simply award Aldo the new UFC belt.
The 24-year-old’s entry into the UFC has been the most highly-anticipated part of the merger, as he’s quickly established himself as one of the most exciting fighters in the world. His last title defence
was a second-round destruction of Manvel Gamburyan.
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