Patricio Pitbull always believed he’d beat Jose Aldo if the UFC and Bellator ever reached a deal to match up their featherweight champions. Pitbull now feels that the doors to a “superfight”, with Aldo no longer being under UFC contract and Aldo out of retirement, are more open than ever.
Pitbull stated on the Trocacao Franka podcast this week that he believed Aldo’s retirement had been a decision by others and that “King Of Rio” would eventually resume some type of competition.
” You felt there was an element of fire in his decision [to retire], to end it. He had done so much for the sport.” Pitbull stated. “He’s well financially, but I think, for his age, that his fire isn’t out yet. He’ll sit down, enjoy his son that was just born, his daughter, his marriage, and the moment will come where he will have that desire to fight again, and maybe he goes to boxing. He was in talks with ‘Popo [former WBO and WBA champion Acelino Freitas].. Now that he isn’t under contract [with the UFC]., he can do a [MMA] Superfight. The world has opened for him one more time.”
Aldo hung up his gloves following a loss to Merab Dvalishvili, which put an end to his impressive bantamweight win streak, while Pitbull recently regained his Bellator featherweight title against A.J. McKee will be taking on Adam Borics Saturday at Bellator in Long Beach (Calif .
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Pitbull congratulated his fellow Brazilian for “a beautiful run” in MMA and lamented the fact they were never able to fight when both were in their primes.
“It would have been good [to fight in our primes], right?” he said. “It would have been a decider of who really is the best featherweight. Our numbers are very comparable. The number of titles, wins, title defenses and submissions. Many people believe that “whoever is in UFC is best” and “whoever is in Bellator second is best”, but it is impossible to prove this unless they actually fight.
“It didn’t happen, time has passed, he no longer has the belt, he stopped fighting, but the future is long and opportunities are endless. We’re not that old. We’d all be equally cool if it was a fight between two older guys. In MMA, a superfight is a fight between two old men. Who is ?”
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Aldo will remain forever a legend for the sport after everything he’s done in the WEC and the UFC, Pitbull said. But the Bellator star thinks that, unlike other legends of the game, Aldo still has a lot left in his tank despite deciding to end his career.
” “From my perspective, he’s not retiring beyond his prime,” Pitbull stated. Pitbull said, “He lost, but he is still strong and fast.” He never look like an old and tired champion. He lost a couple of times. This is normal for all fighters .”
