Marlon Moraes eyes year end bantamweight bout with ‘legend’ Jose Aldo

Marlon Moraes is looking to welcome former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo to the promotions bantamweight division.

Aldo announced his plans to move down in weight earlier this year and Marlon Moraes believes fighting him makes the most sense.

“I’ve been training and I want to start a camp. I hope I can fight on December 14, it would be a great date for me to fight. Let’s see what the UFC has planned,” said to Combate (as translated by Google Translate). “The Aldo fight is not only interesting for me. Jose is a legend of the sport, a featherweight champion. He has been talking about dropping to bantamweight and I’m the number one contender. Nothing better than dropping a division and fighting the number one guy. He deserves it.

“Aldo shouldn’t have to fight 53 times before he can fight for the title. I think it would be a good opportunity for him to prove to the UFC he can really make the weight. And, if he wins, he would go straight to a title shot.”

Although many are worried that Jose Aldo may miss weight, Marlon Moraes is not concerned about that.

“I know Aldo’s team and I have the most respect for them, they are people with whom I have always had a very good relationship, but it is the sport, if we have to compete we can do nothing. Everyone wants to be champion, everyone has a dream,” Marlon Moraes explained. “But I know him and I know this cut wouldn’t be much for him. Really people are sometimes impressed by his cut in 145 [pounds], but as everyone talks, he overdoes it a bit. I think he could hit that weight, yes.”

Regardless, Marlon Moraes is hoping to fight the legend in Jose Aldo in his first fight since moving to American Top Team. The winner could set themselves up for a title shot, so the stakes would be very high.

If he does not get the fight against Jose Aldo at UFC 245, he is open to fighting Dominick Cruz, Urijah Faber, or Petr Yan.

“There are other guys too, like Petr Yan, who’s a guy I’m looking to fight him. There’s Dominick Cruz, who is about to fight now, and (Urijah) Faber,” he said. “These are the guys I’m thinking of fighting.”

Would you be interested in seeing Marlon Mores fight Jose Aldo at UFC 245?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 9/25/2019.