UFC president Dana White says he feels Jose Aldo won his first bantamweight fight, and isn’t opposed to him challenging for the title.
Jose Aldo made his bantamweight debut on Saturday 14 December with a points defeat to Marlon Moraes.
Aldo had undergone rapid weight-loss in order to make 135lbs for the fight.
Pictures emerged of him looking frail in the build-up to the fight, and many had predicted that the extreme cut would prove costly at UFC 245.
Deflated
On paper it looked like those who had doubts were right, as the 33-year-old was edged out by his fellow Brazilian.
Moraes fell to his knees with joy as the decision was announced, whilst Aldo was visibly deflated by the outcome.
See their reactions below:
Wrong Decision
But not everyone agrees with the judges, and some have said that Aldo did enough to take the win.
One of those was UFC president Dana White, who was confused by the judges’ decision to give two rounds to Moraes.
Speaking in the post-fight conference, White said: “Yeah, he won the fight.”
“Listen, you can’t win a fight running backwards for two rounds. It just doesn’t work that way.”
“I don’t know what the f*** those judges were watching. To give that to Marlon was crazy.”
White added that Bantamweight and Flyweight champion Henry Cejudo also believed Aldo should have taken the win, and says he isn’t averse to letting Aldo challenge the American for the bantamweight title.
White continued: “Henry Cejudo texted me tonight and said, “That’s bull****, he didn’t lose that fight, he won that fight. And I want to treat him like he did.’ He wants to fight Jose Aldo.”
“I don’t hate it.”
“Cejudo is the man right now. If you look at what Cejudo has accomplished, if he says ‘I want Jose Aldo…’
“If that’s what he wants to do next, we could do it. I don’t have a problem with it. I’m sure people would want to see it.”
Humble Victor
Marlon Moraes on the other hand was confident that he won the fight. He said: ”You go home and watch the fight again, and you see I won,”
”I landed a lot of straight punches,”
“I outscored him. He only landed one punch and cut me, but that’s it. Besides that, I didn’t feel anything.”
Regardless of the result, Moraes remained humble in victory, and praised his opponent.
Speaking of Aldo’s performance he said: “It was a good fight. Hats off for him to take the challenge, make weight, and we put on a great fight. I think the fans liked it.”
And despite Aldo’s disappointment, the mutual respect between the two Brazilians was evident as they were seen arm-in-arm at the end of the fight.
It will be interesting to see whether White actually offers Aldo a title shot off the back of a loss.
Alternatively, we could see rematch between the Brazilians with a title shot as the prize.
(Featured image source: Twitter/ Aaron Bronsteter, TSN Sports and MMA Fighting)