Jose Aldo turned down million-dollar payday to make return at UFC 301: “We had a lot of offers”

Former featherweight champion Jose Aldo felt that he had to return to the UFC.

‘Junior’ famously retired from MMA after a unanimous decision defeat against Merab Dvalishvili in August 2022. For the next two years or so, Jose Aldo competed in the boxing ring. He compiled a 2-0-1 record and was in discussions for exhibitions with the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr. Instead, the former champion will return to the UFC.

This Saturday night at UFC 301, Jose Aldo will return to Brazil. While he originally hoped for a matchup with former champion Dominick Cruz, he will instead meet the rising Jonathan Martinez. ‘The Dragon’ enters the matchup riding a six-fight winning streak, with wins over the likes of Adrian Yanez and Cub Swanson.

In a recent interview with CBS Sports’ Shakiel Mahjouri, Jose Aldo opened up on his return to the UFC. There, the former featherweight champion stated that while he wanted to experiment in boxing, he still held a lot of love for MMA. Aldo added that while his deal is up with the UFC after this weekend, he has no intentions of going anywhere.

RELATED: DOMINICK CRUZ REVEALS THE TWO NAMES HE’S TARGETING FOR HIS 2024 COMEBACK: “I KNOW I CAN DO WELL”

Jose Aldo opens up on MMA comeback ahead of UFC 301 return

Now, that’s not to say that Jose Aldo might not take a boxing match in the near future. However, as far as his MMA career goes, he’s not going to head anywhere else. In the interview, Aldo revealed that he was offered $1 million to compete by an unnamed MMA promotion. But, he didn’t accept.

“This is the last fight on my contract. When I started talking to Sean [Shelby] and Dana [White] back in January, we talked about signing a new deal. But I decided against it because I want to go in there, and show them.” Jose Aldo stated in the interview. “I need to show myself and everyone where I’m at. What I can still do, and how I can perform. We had a lot of offers.”

He continued, “We could have a boxing match lined up pretty quickly if we wanted to do that as well. So I told them ‘Let’s wait’. Let me go in there and put on a performance, and we’ll talk after that to see if we’ll renew a deal or not. We’ve been reached out by other organizations and offered big $1,000,000 purses and things like that. But it’s not really a matter of a financial decision, I needed to have that break [from MMA]. I wanted to pursue my dream of boxing, and now I’m coming back.”

What do you make of these comments from the former UFC featherweight champion? Do you believe Jose Aldo will defeat Jonathan Martinez this Saturday?