Jose Aldo Expects to Defend Title Against Kenny Florian in October

[WrestlingSmarks News]

The last few weeks have seen a lot of strange stuff coming from the UFC featherweight division. After featherweight champion Jose Aldo defeated Mark Hominick at UFC 129, Dana White made it clear that Aldo's next defense would "likely" be against Chad Mendes at UFC 133 on August 6th. No contract was ever signed, and Aldo (through Ed Soares) ended up turning down that fight for a few different reasons. Mendes decided to stay on the card, and will fight Rani Yayha. And it seems he's lost his title shot as a result of all this.

As we all know, Kenny Florian dropped to featherweight and defeated Diego Nunes at UFC 131. After the card, Mr. White now proclaimed Florian to be the guy who "more than likely" gets to fight Aldo now. And today, Aldo all but confirmed that to be the case in an interview on SenseiSporTV in Brazil (via ESPN):

"I think it’ll be a tough fight. I don’t doubt that," said Aldo of his matchup with the former UFC lightweight title challenger. "Florian’s name and reputation in the U.S. will make this fight marketable, so I think he’ll be my next opponent, probably in October."

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There are two cards in October, UFC 136 in Houston on October 8th, and UFC 137 in Las Vegas on October 29th. With a welterweight title fight scheduled between Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz for UFC 137 and the rumors of Cain Velasquez not being ready to defend his heavyweight title in Houston, the logical date for Florian/Aldo would be October 8th. Will it go down that way? Guess we'll find out soon enough.