After a controversial decision loss Aiemann Zahabi at UFC 315, Jose Aldo laid his gloves down in the octagon and declared he was most likely done with fighting.
The UFC’s translator did a valiant job translating Aldo’s two minute retirement speech from Portuguese on air, but he didn’t quite capture everything the former two-time featherweight champion and legend said. So Aldo went ahead and posted an English translation of on on his X (formerly Twitter) account on Sunday afternoon.
“This may have been my last time inside the Octagon,” Aldo wrote. “This week, I faced one of the biggest battles of my life, and it wasn’t against an opponent, but within myself.”
more than I ever had. But while cutting weight, something inside me said: “You don’t need to do this anymore.”
And I listened.It’s time to move forward.
To live for my wife, for my kids. To celebrate the story I wrote with every war, every belt earned through blood and faith. pic.twitter.com/Vu30NHmo2k— Jose Aldo Junior (@josealdojunior) May 11, 2025
“Over the past few years, I rekindled the dream of becoming a champion once again. I trained as I always did, gave more than I ever had. But while cutting weight, something inside me said, ‘You don’t need to do this anymore.’ And I listened.”
“It’s time to move forward,” he continued. “To live for my wife, for my kids. To celebrate the story I wrote with every war, every belt earned through blood and faith. Thank you, Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta. Thank you to the UFC. And most of all — thank you, my fans. You were the fuel behind every walk to the cage. You made me a king.
“If this was my farewell, know that I leave in peace,” he concluded. “With a heart full of gratitude and my head held high.”
While Aldo left the door slightly open for a return, the man has nothing left to prove. His first professional fight came at just 17 years of age and he went on to become the dominant WEC and UFC featherweight champion, amassing a 25-1 record between 2004 and 2015.
After finally being dragged out of the 145 pound contender’s circle by Conor McGregor and then Alexander Volkanovski, he reinvented himself at bantamweight and spent two years on the cusp of a championship belt there too.
His last run in 2024-2025 was marred by pointless match-ups from the UFC and controversial decisions, but none of that takes away from the career he’s had and the mark he made on the lighter weight divisions. Thank you, Jose Aldo, for your decades of amazing fights. May you be just as successful in whatever comes next.
