WEC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo: Time To Become a UFC Lightweight?

After defeating Manny Gamburyan at WEC 51 to retain his WEC featherweight title, Jose Aldo stated that he still believes there are still more challenges for him in the division.

After beating two of the most successful featherweights in WEC history in Mike Brown and Urijah Faber, it is doubtful that many other fighters would pose a legitimate challenge to Aldo.

With the WEC beginning to gain popularity, Zuffa may be hesitant to allow the face of the promotion to make a move to the UFC promotion. For that reason, a more likely course of action could be a move to the WEC's lightweight division.

If Aldo is able to decisively dethrone current WEC lightweight champion Ben Henderson, then a move to the UFC's lightweight division may be necessary to provide the featherweight champion with an equal level of competition.

While fans are always quick to wish for title holders to move up and try to claim a more prestigious title, they should remember that Aldo is still only 24 years old and has only defended his title twice. There is plenty of time for Aldo to move on to achieve bigger and better things. Instead of being greedy and rushing Aldo into a tough test that he may not be ready for, fans should sit back and enjoy watching Aldo slowly develop and improve as a fighter.  

While Aldo's claim that there a multiple challengers remaining for him at featherweight may be incorrect, one compelling fight does remain in the division.

Josh Grispi could be the lone threat remaining to beat Aldo at featherweight. If Grispi is victorious in his November fight against Erik Koch, a title fight against Aldo could be next up.

Assuming Aldo would be successful against Grispi, a title run in the WEC's lightweight division should be the next step in Aldo's inevitable path to the UFC lightweight division.

A fight between Henderson and Aldo is a win-win situation for Zuffa. Even if Henderson were to win, it would mean a massive boost in popularity for the current WEC lightweight champion and fans would begin calling for him to make a run at the UFC lightweight title.

If rushed along, these talented young WEC fighters could risk suffering a beating in the UFC lightweight division. If that were to happen, Zuffa may be hesitant to ever move a dominant WEC champion into the UFC ever again.

So, for now, why not just be content to enjoy watching things play out on free television between these young WEC stars?