The UFC’s featherweight champion Jose Aldo has said to MMAFighting.com that should he overcome former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar at UFC 156, he would very much be open to a move up to the lightweight division.

This semi-superfight has MMA fans salivating at the prospect of seeing two of the sport’s best pound-for-pound fighters face off in the Octagon, and Aldo is using the fight as a measuring stick to see how he would fare in the UFC’s deep lightweight division.

“I’ve considered going to lightweight,” Aldo said through an interpreter. “As soon as my trainer decides that I can go up, then I will. This fight with Edgar will be a turning point. If I can win [against] him well, then I can prove that I can go [to lightweight]. He has a very strong reputation thanks to destroying several opponents. That’s the motivation for me to face him and that will be probably my last biggest challenge [in his current division].”

What losing Aldo would do to the featherweight division is open it up to all manner of top contenders that would all more than likely struggle to beat a dominant Aldo, who has been champion for over three years now.

The likes of Dennis Siver, Eric Koch, Cub Swanson, Chan Sung Jung and now Frankie Edgar would all be in contention for the vacated 135lbs title. Aldo has a lot do for it to get to this situation though.

Edgar is by far and away the best fighter he’ll have faced, and will pose a true test to the dominant Brazilian. What a fight it promises to be.

UFC 156: Aldo vs. Edgar takes place on February 2nd, 2013 in the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.