Cub Swanson denies report of him fighting Jose Aldo at UFC 233
It was reported that former featherweight champion Jose Aldo would return to the Octagon to take on a perennial contender, Cub Swanson at UFC 233.
The fight was set to be added to the stacked UFC 233 card, that is already featuring a champion vs. champion title fight and Ben Askren’s UFC debut. Adding Aldo vs. Swanson would make it that much better, but it appears that is not the case. Swanson took to Twitter to deny the report that he is fighting Aldo on January 26. However, Swanson would be open to fighting Aldo later on in the year.
“I love this fight but unfortunately somebody spoke too soon,” Cub Swanson wrote in his Tweet. “I am not fighting on 233 but I am willing to do it February 17th on ESPN 1.”
If they do indeed fight, it would be the rematch between the two. They previously fought in 2009 in which Aldo TKO’d Swanson in just eight seconds. However, that fight happened in WEC almost 10 years ago. Since then Swanson has been clamoring for a rematch as he has said Aldo got lucky.
Ultimately, since the fight, Aldo went on to become a dominant champion in the UFC, but did lose his belt to Conor McGregor and then to Max Holloway. The Brazilian bounced back to defeat Jeremy Stephens in the summer after two straight losses to Holloway. Aldo did hint at a move to lightweight but it appears he will be staying at featherweight if he does indeed fight Swanson.
For Swanson, he is currently riding a three-fight losing streak dating back to December 2017. Title challenger Brian Ortega submitted Swanson in the second round. Followed by a decision loss to Frankie Edgar in April and a submission loss to Renato Moicano in August.
With that, the fight doesn’t make a ton of sense. Aldo is coming off of a win and Swanson is riding a three-fight losing streak. Nonetheless, it is a fight many fans want to see, and the hope is it does get booked for ESPN 1 in February.
