Fan favorite UFC analyst Chael Sonnen thinks Jose Aldo may fight for the bantamweight title in the near future. Last night, ‘Junior’ defeated #13 ranked Jonathan Martinez after coming back from retirement at their UFC 301 co-main event bout via a unanimous decision. This has pumped air to the sails of his career, which seemed to be coming to an end with many expecting the legendary former (and first) UFC featherweight champion to call it quits on his home turf if he lost to Martinez. But his victory has changed everything.

And Sonnen feels there was a potential title fight in the Brazilian’s future if the ‘politics’ behind the scenes went his way.

Jose Aldo’s future in the hands of Dana White

Speaking on ESPN MMA’s YouTube channel with Brett Okamoto, Chael Sonnen revealed a possible title, a possible title shot for Aldo is near if bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley can defeat no. one title contender Merab Dvalishvili in their upcoming bout, “I don’t hate the idea if O’Malley gets a win over Merab, of throwing Jose in.” However, Sonnen and Okamoto agreed that Aldo needed to get another win against a top-ranked fighter in the 135-pound division before he was in a position to fight O’Malley should ‘Suga’ defend his title for the second time.

The candidate both agreed upon was Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera, who is coming off a loss to ‘Suga’ in their UFC 299 title bout. However, Sonnen felt that there were two main obstacles to Aldo fighting ‘Suga’ in the future. The first was whether the champ would call out Aldo as he gets through Dvalishvili, about which the verbose UFC analyst was quite optimistic. “I’m not against it at all [Aldo vs. ‘Chito’ Vera next]… Now there is some politics involved here. Let’s see if O’Malley does what Brett’s predicting [i.e., call out Aldo after defeating Merab Dvalishvili], and I think he’s pretty likely to do that,” he said.

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The second problem Sonnen saw standing between ‘Junior’ and a title shot was the ‘politics’ that was going on behind the scenes, which, in turn, had two aspects. The first problem was Dana White. And the former title contender was not sure how the UFC boss would feel about an O’Malley vs. Aldo clash. This brought him to the main problem of Aldo’s contract with the UFC.

Sonnen claims Aldo’s contract with UFC is up

The other, and bigger, problem was that Aldo’s contract with the UFC ended after UFC 301, according to ‘Uncle Chael’. This means that the former featherweight champion needs to get re-signed by the UFC, which is not a foregone conclusion. And until all of these questions can be resolved, Sonnen felt it was too soon to talk about Aldo’s next fight.

“But let’s also see what Dana White’s taste is for this because it was revealed to us that this was Jose fighting out his contract. I think many thought people thought he would say ‘c’est la vie (such is life)’. But then you’re gonna have to work out a new contract as well, so I think that we’re gonna have to see where that goes,” he added.

However, the contract shouldn’t be a problem. Aldo is one of the greatest fighters in UFC history and commands a dedicated following despite the recent decline in his career and advancing age. Plus, he is still one of the biggest Brazilian stars in the promotion. Brazil is an important market and a fertile recruitment ground for the Dana White-led organization. This means that if things go the direction Sonnen and Okamoto are predicting, Jose Aldo might find himself fighting for a UFC championship yet again.

Do you want Aldo to renew his contract with the UFC? If yes, who should be his opponent? Share with us in the comments below.