This has been a long time coming and I really feel bad for this guy. He was a victim of the Conor McGregor choo choo train and got embarrassed by the Irishman, disappeared for a while, and was never the same after that shocking loss in a fight that only lasted a few seconds. I will forever remember that fight because I was actually in the bathroom at the bar when it started, thinking that I would only miss the seemingly obligatory portion of the fight where the two guys are "feeling one another out" and missed the entire fight in the process.
Jose Aldo had a lot of push to get him back into form after the fight, presuably because of his long-standing relationship with UFC and Dana White, but in the end the guy just wasn't ever good again after that shocking loss and from my own personal experience in MMA, I know first-hand that getting shell-shocked from a bad loss is something that you don't just walk off. It haunts you and remains on your mind forever. Few people recover from this: Aldo certainly didn't.
The thing that makes Jose's fall from grace so impactful is that he was basically a staple in MMA when UFC wasn't anywhere near as popular as it is now. He went something crazy like 8 years (perhaps more) as the dominant player in UFC and was actually the first ever featherweight champion in 2010. For the next 5 years he basically steamrolled everyone that he faced and it wasn't a group of nobodies either. We are talking Chad Mendes, Ricardo Lamas, and the Korean Zombie.
Aldo was "the man" for a long time but in reality the UFC wasn't anywhere near as popular back then as it is now and he became a household name for all the wrong reasons. It is like being immortalized in a Michael Jordan photograph because he is dunking ON you.
Aldo was a pioneer in MMA, he hadn't lost a fight in 10 whopping years at that point but in 13 seconds the above became his legacy and I don't think he was ever able to get out from under that shadow.
He came back looking jacked a while later, but the spring in his step just wasn't there and even the fights that he won, of which there weren't many, were boring slogs that were entirely decision victories. The man hasn't had a submission or KO victory since 2019 and he wasn't so much as ever offered a rematch with McGregor, which while I do not know the specifics of, seems like a real slap in the face to a guy that stuck with UFC back when there was basically no money in participating in it.
This fight over the weekend was also a boring one where he faced off against Zahabi and while there were a considerable amount of strikes thrown, nobody ever looked in danger and it resembled more of a boxing match than anything else with a mere 13 leg kicks happening in total by both men.
Aldo retired in the Octagon after the unanimous decision was announced to exactly nobody's surprise. He stated in the press later that "my heart just isn't in it anymore." I would say that is evident and at this point the UFC is doing what the UFC always does and that is to use him up at a stepping stone to promote other fighters.
I, for one, am not sad to see him go. His fights were exclusively boring after the Conor one, to the point where I would almost always use these fights as a time to go and do something else with my day. There wasn't any reason to watch because you already knew that nothing explosive was going to happen. Heart or not, he just wasn't ever any good again after that horrible loss to Conor nearly 10 years ago.
Let's keep in mind that Aldo has already retired once and he stayed retired for a full 6 years before coming back and suffered 2 consecutive losses. I don't really even understand why he was on the main card at this recent UFC event, probably because it was a lackluster card to begin with and sort of a non-issue of a show.
Aldo is too small to fight Jake Paul, so I don't know what he is going to do now I for one hope he just stays out of fighting and has utilized his estimated net worth of $9 million wisely.