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While most professional fighters don’t make Patrick Mahomes money, you can still build up a nice fortune in the octagon. Jose Aldo is proof of that reality; thanks in large to his UFC success, the Brazilian bantamweight is worth an estimated $9 million. He wasn’t always incredibly wealthy, though.

While mixed martial arts have made Aldo rich, he almost stopped fighting because of one harsh reality: he was looking to save a few bucks.

Jose Aldo’s dominant fighting career

These days, Jose Aldo is one of the top MMA fighters to ever step into the octagon. His success, however, isn’t a recent phenomenon.

Aldo turned pro at age 17 and made a name for himself on the Brazilian MMA scene. He made his World Extreme Cagefighting debut in 2008; within a year, he claimed the featherweight title. After the UFC and WEC merged, he retained the belt and defended it seven times.

In December 2015, however, everything changed. Aldo faced Conor McGregor and was knocked out in 13 seconds; while he managed to reclaim the belt with a win over Frankie Edgar, the Brazilian hasn’t been able to reclaim his lost form.

After defeating Edgar by unanimous decision in July 2016, Aldo lost two consecutive fights to Max Holloway. The Brazilian won his next two bouts before suffering another defeat at the hands of Alexander Volkanovski. A new weight class didn’t change Aldo’s fortunes, either, as he dropped his bantamweight debut to Marlon Moraes.

Quitting capoeira to save $2

While Jose Aldo has become rich and famous thanks to mixed martial arts, they weren’t his first love. The Brazilian initially dreamed of being a soccer star.

During his youth, however, Aldo found a new sport. As Guilherme Cruz explained for MMAFighting.com, capoeira training proved to be a natural fit for the boy’s talents. There was one problem, though: classes cost money, and Aldo’s father wasn’t making much as a bricklayer.

“Aldo had to leave capoeira because he had to pay a 10 reais [about $1.85] fee,” Marcio Pontes, a local jiu-jitsu teacher explained. “That’s really cheap, but he didn’t have that money at the time. He stopped playing capoeira and saw this opportunity to train jiu-jitsu, but he had no money to buy a gi either.”

Pontes gave Aldo and his cousin, Andre Luiz, two spare gis, and they began training. Before long, Jose started winning tournaments. Those victories would pave the way for his future career.

These days, Jose Aldo doesn’t have to worry about money

Growing up in Brazil, $2 was enough to force Jose Aldo to leave capoeira training behind. These days, however, money isn’t a concern.

According to CelebrityNetWorth, the Brazilian has an estimated fortune of $9 million. While that number may pale in comparison to some of the sport’s biggest names—Conor McGregor, for example, is worth an estimated $120 million—that’s nothing to sneeze at, especially given Aldo’s past.

“If today I am who I am and I fight the way I fight, It’s thanks to all the adversities I encountered in life,” Aldo explained, according to Elias Cepeda of Yahoo Sports. “The way I lived my life is what made me strong. That’s what makes me a rounded person, with a good mind-set, able to go in there and win.”

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Senior Writer, Programmer

Joe Kozlowski

Joe Kozlowski began his career as a sports journalist in 2013 and joined Sportscasting in 2019. He covers the NBA and soccer for Sportscasting, with specialties in legacy NBA players such as Michael Jordan and Premier League club Arsenal. Off the clock, he’s a Kansas City Chiefs fan and a hockey goalie.

Growing up loving Shaquille O’Neal and reading everything he could about the great big men throughout NBA history — likely because he was still tall enough, at least relative to his peers, to play center — he’s continued to love learning about and exploring the historical and story-based sides of the basketball archives.

As for Arsenal, Joe spent a year living in London and latched onto the local support of the club. He’s barely missed a match since, loving Arsene Wenger, enduring the Banter Era, and following along through rebuilds. The Premier League interest developed into a passionate following of the Champions League, Europe’s big five league, and international soccer as a whole when played at the highest level.

Regardless of the sport, Joe is captivated by the stories of athletes beyond the box scores and how they push the envelope — both in terms of what we think a human is capable of accomplishing and how they find new competitive tactics to win.