Former long-reigning champion and UFC Hall of Fame member Jose Aldo missed the bantamweight limit Friday for his scheduled fight against Aiemann Zahabi at UFC 315. The bout will now proceed as a featherweight contest.
Aldo weighed in at 137 pounds, two pounds over the bantamweight non-title fight threshold. Zahabi successfully made weight at 136 pounds. This weight miss alters a fight already drawing attention due to Aldo’s status in the sport.
Aiemann Zahabi, a Canadian fighter, enters the event on a winning streak in the bantamweight division. His recent win over Pedro Munhoz helped propel him into the rankings.
Adding a layer to the matchup, Zahabi is expected to have fellow UFC Hall of Fame fighter Georges St-Pierre in his corner. St-Pierre is a longtime fixture at Zahabi’s Tristar Gym in Montreal.
"I’ll bring out GSP. GSP believes in me, so I wanna feed off that energy," Zahabi told a media outlet.
Aldo stands as one of the last competitors from an earlier era of the sport, including contemporaries such as Dominick Cruz, Frankie Edgar, Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, and Cain Velasquez, who gathered for a media conference before UFC 129 in 2011. Most of that group are no longer actively competing.
Despite being inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2023 and widely considered among the best featherweight fighters of all time, Jose Aldo continues to compete. His recent record includes a split decision loss against Mario Bautista at UFC 307 and a win over Jonathan Martinez before that.
His decision to keep fighting, particularly in the lower weight class and after missing weight, prompts questions about his motivations and purpose at this stage of his career.
