UFC President Says Jose Aldo ‘Absolutely Deserves’ Bantamweight Title Shot

Last week, a long-rumored bantamweight championship clash between Henry Cejudo and Jose Aldo was made official for the UFC 250 headliner in Sao Paulo.

Naturally, the announcement was panned by some of the top contenders in the division. After all, Aldo’s 135-pound debut was a split-decision loss to Marlon Moraes at UFC 245. However, Aldo's performance in defeat was enough to attract the attention of Cejudo and UFC president Dana White, and that's all that matters.

“I think he [Aldo] won. I think the judges got it wrong and I think he won the fight,” White told TMZ Sports. “He [Cejudo] texted me right after the fight and said, ‘Aldo won that fight.’ He wants to fight Aldo. He wants to fight the legend.”

Aldo is widely regarded as the greatest featherweight of all time. His title shot at 135 pounds is in line with the latest trend of the promotion rewarding fighters coming off a loss. This weekend, Yoel Romero will face middleweight champion Israel Adesanya while in the midst of a two-bout losing streak.

White is aware of the backlash against the UFC 250 booking and quite frankly, he doesn’t care.

“Then don’t watch it. People are full of s—t,” he said. “It’s going to be an incredible fight.”

In fact, White doesn’t think Aldo is a questionable No. 1 contender at all, even without a single bantamweight triumph on his resume.

“Aldo absolutely deserves this,” White said. “Cejudo wants it. The champ-champ, the guy who won belts in two divisions wants to fight Aldo, so what does that mean? Cejudo isn’t a guy that’s running around looking for easy fights.”