Jose Aldo To Defend Featherweight Belt At UFC 208, Max Holloway May Not Be Opponent

UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo is preparing to make the first defense of his newly handed title at UFC 208, and while the interim featherweight champion is Max Holloway, Holloway may not be the man that Aldo defends the gold against.

Aldo is currently doing a media tour to promote a miniseries that is being produced about his life. He addressed the Featherweight title situation during the tour.

“The date is certain,” Aldo said. “I’ll fight that day, whether it’s with him or somebody else. Whether he’ll show up or not is his problem.”

Holloway, in an interview of his own, was quick to say that family obligations like his son’s birthday will prevent him from competing at UFC 208.

“I don’t want to give up my son’s birthday and Christmas for Feb. 11, and (Aldo) don’t show up,” Holloway said. “This guy has a knack for not showing up to the fights.”

The UFC Featherweight Champion was quick to respond to what Holloway said, talking about how real champions do not get selective when picking dates for fights.

“I think everybody has a family,” Aldo said. “Everyone has kids, dates, everything. So if you want to be champion, there’s no such thing (as picking dates). I’ve fought events like Super Bowl (weekend) and trained during Christmas and New Year’s and it was never a problem for me. So it’s very easy to analyze and see who’s the one that’s not going to show up. This was already certain. It was certain, and the UFC already had these dates in mind. We just hadn’t announced it because (Holloway vs. Pettis) needed to happen first.”

Holloway just competed at UFC 206 and he won the UFC Interim Featherweight Title, while Aldo last competed and won another version of the UFC Interim Featherweight Title at UFC 200.