Aiemann Zahabi is set for the biggest fight of his career thus far at UFC 315 as he looks to crack the top 10 of the bantamweight rankings.
Following an extremely impressive five fight win streak that saw Aiemann Zahabi pick up wins over the likes of Pedro Munhoz and Javid Basharat, the Canadian has been given the biggest opportunity of his career.
Earlier this week it was announced that Zahabi will take on Jose Aldo at UFC 315 in Montreal, Canada on May 10 as he looks to score six wins in a row and take down another UFC legend.
Jose Aldo last fought at UFC 307 when he was controversially beaten by Mario Bautista, which led to calls for the former featherweight champion to step away from fighting at 38 years old.
Aiemann Zahabi was paid to mimic Jose Aldo for Kenny Florian fight camp 14 years ago
‘The King of Rio’ will go down as one of, if not the best 145lb fighter of all time after spending over 5 years as the champion of the division which saw Aldo score some incredible finishes.
During his reign as the featherweight champion, in 2011 the Brazilian fought Kenny Florian and none other than Zahabi was brought into Florian’s camp to mimic Aldo.
“I just wanna say, I was in Kenny Florian’s training camp over 14 years ago, I was pretending to be Aldo for the whole camp, I was going back between Boston and Montreal with Kenny, so Kenny, this ones for you baby,” Zahabi revealed on The Ariel Helwani show.
Unfortunately for the Florian team, he was unable to dethrone Aldo and the Brazilian went on to score a unanimous decision win.
“We’re gonna get him this time, Kenny. Kenny just messaged me saying, ‘Get him for me, you’ve got to get him for me’,” Zahabi continued.
Could this be the final fight of Jose Aldo’s career?
Bizarrely, despite being only 14 fights into his professional career, Zahabi is only one year younger than ‘The King of Rio’.
The majority of fans are surprised to still see Aldo competing in the UFC at this stage in his career and following his loss to Merab Dvalishvili back in 2022, it seemed as though Aldo was walking away from his MMA career.
Prior to Dominick Cruz’s recent retirement, fans were calling for a fight between him and Aldo, as a retirement fight for them both.
And although the Brazilian has still looked competitive since returning to the promotion, his days are certainly numbered and another disappointing loss could see him hang up the gloves once and for all.