Kenny Florian questions Jose Aldo’s motivation after Holloway loss

Back in June, featherweight great Jose Aldo stepped into the cage to defend the UFC featherweight title against the streaking Max Holloway. Despite a strong start, Aldo was ultimately TKO’d by his young foe, surrendering the belt in the process.

While nothing can be taken away from Holloway, UFC analyst Kenny Florian believes Aldo’s loss can be widely attributed to his own lack of motivation. Florian shared this though on the latest episode of the The Anik & Florian Podcast.

“That’s the big question for me because although he was winning the majority of that fight against Max Holloway, early on especially, as the fight went on it seemed like it was the Jose Aldo that kind of loses interest in the fight,” Florian said (h/t MMAFighting.com). “It seemed like maybe he was a little bit bored or didn’t want to work as hard as he normally does during the fight. He didn’t have that same kind of pep in his step and Holloway just took it to him, kept pressuring him backwards and Holloway just broke him mentally and then took him out with skill. It was a beautiful thing to watch.”

“For Aldo, this is an interesting fight to see, are you still motivated to fight? Are you still out there to win and put out your best performance? Especially against a guy he already beat, we’re gonna find out pretty quickly what Jose Aldo is all about and if he truly wants to get back to the top of this division.”

Jose Aldo’s motivation will need to be on point going forward, as he’s now scheduled for a rematch with the ever-dangerous Ricardo Lamas, who he defeated by decision back in 2014.

What do you think of these comments from Kenny Florian? Is Jose Aldo’s motivation really faltering?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 10/17/2017