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What's the story?
This past Sunday, reports flooded the internet suggesting that a highly awaited rematch between former UFC Featherweight Champion, Jose Aldo, and former title contender, Cub Swanson, was apparently in the works for UFC 233.
However, it now looks like that fight might not take place in January after all, given that Swanson has reportedly refused to fight Aldo in early 2019.
In case you didn't know...
Cub Swanson and Jose Aldo first collided at WEC 41 on 7 June 2009, at World Extreme Cagefighting. Just 8 seconds into the fight, Swanson was caught by a double flying knee by Aldo, which eventually resulted in a TKO defeat for the former.
In 2011, Swanson became the final WEC fighter to get imported to the UFC. However, in his promotional debut against Ricardo Lamas, Swanson suffered a second-round defeat thanks to an arm triangle choke.
The heart of the matter
The idea of a rematch between Brazilian icon Jose Aldo and Cub Swanson at UFC 233 has reportedly been shot down by the latter on social media, as Swanson tweeted out on Monday saying that he isn't willing to fight on the first UFC event of 2019.
However, according to Swanson, he is seemingly ready to rematch Aldo in February instead, on UFC's first Fight Night show on ESPN TV.
Swanson tweeted out the following:
What's next?
UFC 233 so far looks like an absolutely stacked fight card featuring the likes of Henry Cejudo and TJ Dillashaw in a Champion vs Champion fight. Whereas, ONE Championship veteran Ben Askren will make his UFC debut against Robbie Lawler.
ESPN's first UFC event will take place on 17 February, and so far no fights have been announced for the card. However, Swanson and Aldo could very well be the first fight to be confirmed, and could potentially be a show stealer on this occasion as well.
