According to Dana White, the issues revolving around Jose Aldo’s move to lightweight have been resolved and a title fight with Anthony Pettis is a go. White has been pushing for the fight since Aldo won his UFC 169 bout, but Aldo’s camp pushed back about White’s insistence that Aldo drop his featherweight belt to move up. They even suggested a catchweight fight at 150 pounds, which was flatly rejected by Pettis’ camp and the UFC. In the end though, Dana usually gets what he wants and he says Aldo’s concerns have been addressed (via MMA Fighting):
“I think what Aldo was worried about, is if Aldo moves up to 155 and vacates the title, he wants to be treated like a champion in this fight – which he would be,” White said on FOX Sports Live. “All the things that he gets at 145 pounds as a champion he would receive, and I think that was part of the issue, and that was all worked out today.”
“If Aldo lost at 155, he could move back down and challenge the new champion for that [145] belt,” White said.
And Dana also has a plan in place for the vacated 145-pound title if all goes according to plan (via Fox Sports):
“I’m not making a fight announcement here or anything, but what would make sense is Cub Swanson and Chad Mendes would probably be fighting for that title, and Pettis and Aldo would fight at 155,” White said.
I still maintain that Ricardo Lamas probably deserves the spot over Cub due to beating him, but Lamas did just lose a title fight so it makes sense. Either way, I think this is all great if they can make it happen.
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