LONDON – WEC featherweight champion Jose Aldo may agree with observers who think he's running out of credible threats.
During a Q&A session with UFC Fight Club members at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London, UFC president Dana White said Aldo has expressed interest in moving up to the lightweight division.
"From what I'm hearing, Aldo's interested in testing himself," White said.
The UFC president did not present a timeline for a possible move other than to say it could happen "very soon."
Aldo, who trains out of Nova Uniao and is affiliated with unofficial fight team Blackhouse, decimated the most recent challenger to his WEC crown when he took out former UFC lightweight and "The Ultimate Fighter 5" runner-up Manny Gamburyan by second-round TKO at WEC 51. It was his eighth consecutive victory in the promotion.
Observers have pointed to standouts Mark Hominick (19-8 MMA, 3-2 WEC) and Josh Grispi (14-1 MMA, 4-0 WEC) as potentials for the next featherweight contendership, though the Brazilian champion's next booking is currently unclear.
Following his bout with Gamburyan, Aldo (18-1 MMA, 8-0 WEC) downplayed the possibility of an immediate move.
"The same way that Manny earned his title shot, there's a lot of guys that are going to come up and earn their title shots," Aldo told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) through interpreter Derek Lee.
But change appears to be in the air. In addition to his comments about Aldo, White said the UFC could borrow some of its sister promotion's top-tier lightweight talent. (The weight class remains the only one used by both the UFC and WEC.) Asked about the possibility of seeing WEC lightweight champion Ben Henderson in the UFC octagon, the executive said it is in the works.
"There's some interesting fights with those guys (in the WEC), so we're working on putting those together," White said. "We're working on a lot of things right now that we'll be announcing in the next couple of months."
WEC officials so far have been mum on the possibility of loaning out talent to the UFC, and WEC president Reed Harris has shrugged off rumors of an impending merger between the promotions.
But for Aldo, the desire to face top competition is clearly making some noise in the Zuffa offices.
Comment