The only fighter to defeat José Aldo returns to the ring after leaving MMA for PM

Luciano Azevedo has a professional record of 16 wins, nine losses and one draw. Photo: Reproduction/Facebook

Despite having a record that is not impressive in terms of numbers (16-9-1), Luciano Azevedo from Rio is proud to have a unique brand in MMA: to have been the only athlete to date to defeat the UFC featherweight champion. José Aldo in a professional fight. Despite this achievement, the 33-year-old athlete had left the sport to dedicate himself to a career in the Military Police and had not fought since 2011. However, on August 24th, the hiatus came to an end. On that date, Luciano returns to mixed martial arts and faces Jeferson dos Santos at Shooto 49.

the return to cage, however, it shouldn't cause so much surprise to the police officer, as the edition of Shooto will be special and dedicated to the Special Operations Battalion of the Military Police, BOPE, and is even called “Shooto 49: Fight for BOPE 4”. The event takes place at the Tijuca Tênis Clube gymnasium, in Rio de Janeiro (RJ), and will be headlined by the duel between Luiz “Besouro”, participant of TUF Brasil 2 and former UFC athlete, and Carlos Alexandre “Índio”, former Shooto champion and who spent time at Bellator.

The meeting between Luciano Azevedo and José Aldo in the ring took place in the third fight on the Jungle Fight 5, held in November 2005. On that occasion, Azevedo ended up submitting Aldo with a rear naked choke in the second round. That would be the sixth of nine consecutive victories that Luciano had between 2004 and 2006, which even earned him a fight in the now-defunct PRIDE. However, since the incursion into the Japanese event, the current PM has had a more irregular record. Aldo, on the other hand, won the 17 fights he had since that submission and won the WEC and UFC belts.