Kenny Florian: Henry Cejudo vs. Jose Aldo is hard to justify

Kenny Florian doesn’t see how the UFC can justify booking Henry Cejudo vs. Jose Aldo.

Aldo made his bantamweight debut this past Saturday night (Dec. 14). He shared the Octagon with Marlon Moraes on the main card of UFC 245 in Las Vegas. The bout went the distance and Moraes was awarded the split nod. While some argue that Aldo should’ve emerged victorious, the fact remains that the former featherweight kingpin lost the fight.

Despite Aldo’s defeat, UFC president Dana White told reporters that he likes the idea of UFC “champ-champ” Henry Cejudo defending his bantamweight gold against Aldo. During the latest edition of the Anik & Florian podcast, “KenFlo” said it’s a tough fight to justify.

“Again this is a business as well, right?” Florian said on a potential Cejudo vs. Jose Aldo clash. “So in the UFC’s mind, I think that’s a fight that makes a lot of sense. Hard to say that if you got Marlon Moraes behind you going, ‘I won the fight. I won the fight. What you doing? I won the fight.’ And the thing is, yes Jose Aldo he’s a bigger star in Brazil than a Marlon Moraes and he had just gone down to 135 pounds, but I don’t know how you can justify that.”

Florian then said giving title shots to fighters coming off losses just based on star power could create problems for the UFC.

“I don’t know if we’ve seen that in the past unless we saw someone like a Marlon Moraes injured or something like that but that’s a hard one to justify,” Florian continued when speaking on a potential title shot for Jose Aldo. “And yes you could make an argument that Jose Aldo won the fight but when have we seen the UFC actually make that decision of going, ‘yeah he lost the decision but we’re gonna give it to him anyway.’ It’s not something that I’m sure as a business you wanna do too often. The fans may revolt but I don’t know.”

Do you think Henry Cejudo vs. Jose Aldo is justifiable?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 12/18/2019.