T.J. Dillashaw Interested in Fight Against Jose Aldo ‘After I Get My Belt Back’

Shortly after he authored perhaps his best performance since moving to bantamweight in a unanimous decision triumph over Pedro Munhoz at UFC 265, Jose Aldo set his sights on a fellow former champion.

“It would be great for me to fight with [T.J.] Dillashaw,” Aldo said after his UFC 265 win. “Hopefully by December. I think it would be a great fight and that’s what we expect. That’s what I’m expecting right now.”

Dillashaw returned from more than a two-year absence at UFC on ESPN 27, where he captured a contentious split-decision triumph over Cory Sandhagen on July 24. While the ex-bantamweight king is open to a future clash with Aldo, he has some unfinished business he’d like to handle first.

“Yeah, I like the callout,” Dillashaw said in a recent interview with Submission Radio. “I would like to fight Jose Aldo. He’s a legend of our sport, and we can do it after I get my belt back.”

That means Dillashaw will have to wait for the winner of the rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan, which is rumored for UFC 267 on Oct. 30. The Treigning Lab representative is quick to point out that he’s been a popular callout for many UFC fighters.

“I’ve actually been called out I think by every fighter in the, for sure Top 5, if not Top 10, after they won a fight before I came back and fought Sandhagen,” Dillashaw said. “I swear every fighter called me out because it makes sense. I mean, I’m the true champion of the division, and you’re trying to build your name off me, thinking that I’ve been out for two years, that I’m coming off all this drama, that I’m not going to be the same fighter. And Sandhagen made that mistake, as well, and now he’s having to go further back to try and get to a title.”

Dillashaw is currently recovering from knee surgery, and then has designs on facing the Sterling-Yan winner, but if all goes as planned, he likes Aldo as a potential opponent down the road. Given the profile of both athletes, it seems like a matchup that would interest the UFC, as well.

“I mean, just Aldo’s name alone makes it interesting, right?” Dillashaw said. “Like, I would love that fight. So yeah, maybe it would be my first fight as champ beause Jose Aldo is a legend in the sport. I remember him in the WEC before I even had my first professional fight. He was fighting Urijah (Faber) when I was training there, so the guy’s been on top of the world for a long time. So it would be a dope fight.”