Jose Aldo: Floyd Mayweather exhibition is still in talks, but the focus is on Jeremy Stephens

Former UFC and WEC featherweight champion Jose Aldo is nowadays concentrated on his forthcoming battle versus Jeremy Stephens at the Gamebred Boxing 4 event in Milwaukee, amid his desire in a potential boxing bout with iconic boxer Floyd Mayweather sometime this year.

Aldo disclosed that he currently got Ali Abdelaziz as his manager in the boxing business and continues to be in discussions for a potential Mayweather fight in Saudi Arabia on MMA Fighting's Trocaço Franca. He, nevertheless, avoids looking beyond their current conflict and keeps his complete attention on Stephens.

“I’m only training here,” Aldo said. “I forget all that [with Mayweather] for a bit because my next step is the Jeremy match, so I can’t think of anything else. After my performance on Saturday, not only the Mayweather one, we’ll get new offers for us [to box].”

Artem Lobov and Jose Aldo were supposed to fight at Gamebred Boxing 4, however, the match was scrapped. Despite Acelino Freitas' frequent challenges over the recent years, Aldo seems to have no intention of challenging him to a bout. Notwithstanding Freitas' latest exhibition bouts in Brazil versus Whindersson Nunes & José Landi-Jons, Aldo insisted that he is concentrating on what is right rather than what can occur.

Aldo asserted that perhaps the prize money for his upcoming fight with Jeremy Stephens is way greater compared to what certain fighters earn in other promotions. He also said that he will not make comparisons with the money he could earn by competing in Brazil, in which the pay-per-view event and arena attendance are very different from those in the US. Aldo is currently just thinking about his next showdown against Stephens and isn't intending to take on any additional opponents.

José Aldo faced Emmanuel Zambrano in his boxing introduction this past February in Rio de Janeiro and prevailed through decision after six rounds. Aldo was conscious of the stress of performing because his battle with Jeremy Stephens was already timetabled for April, although he didn't get compensated well for the contest. Although the fight wasn't originally meant to be beneficial, Aldo felt the pressure of the Stephens battle and the ambitions of his supporters and detractors.

“I had to put on a good performance and have a great debut to convince everybody,” Aldo said. “I had a little fear of [the fight] not going the way I expected and frustrating the next step we had in mind, knowing we already had the next [match] booked — and [Stephens] is way tougher than the debut [opponent].”

Jeremy Stephens and Jose Aldo have previously been involved in mixed martial arts action, having Aldo prevailing via first-round stoppage in the octagon in 2018. Aldo won four of his last eight UFC fights after the match, which included a contest against Petr Yan for the vacant bantamweight gold. Aldo formally ended his MMA career in 2022 to focus on his boxing career.

“It’s a new story,” Aldo said of fighting Stephens a second time. “We’re facing off now and it has nothing to do with what we did for years in the UFC or any other promotion he’s fighting in right now. I think he’s not thinking of what happened before. We’re going to box, it’s completely different now.”