Jose Aldo should have defended his UFC featherweight title against Ricardo Lamas last weekend in the main event of the FOX UFC Saturday show in Chicago.

In fact, it was such a perfect opportunity that it’s a little worrisome that the UFC opted instead to keep Benson Henderson and Josh Thomson as the final pairing last weekend, while continuing to roll with Aldo and Lamas in the penultimate spot at UFC 169 Saturday evening at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Watch UFC 169 preliminary fights on Sportsnet 360 Saturday starting at 8 p.m. EST

After all, the trend of having a championship bout serving as the headlining act had been established over the last five UFC on FOX events, and the featherweight pairing was built for that show — Lamas is a blue-collar representative of the Chicago area whose patient wait to fight for the title would’ve played extremely well in the Road to the Octagon special, while Aldo’s resume and "sizzle reel" elevates what was a good-but-not-great card into something fans definitely have to check out.

UFC 169 wouldn’t have suffered much either — Renan Barao and Urijah Faber remain in the main event while heavyweights Frank Mir and Alistair Overeem get elevated to second billing. Fight fans get two events on successive weekends with compelling championship matchups.

Instead, last weekend’s event in Chicago went out, not with a bang, but with a whimper and now there isn’t enough spotlight to go around between a pair of championship fights and a heavyweight contest between two of the more recognizable names in the UFC this weekend in New Jersey.

Given the current championship landscape and the critical need to turn some of the lesser known champions and challengers into great stars, building an event around tandem title fights is a poor decision.

Heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez is out of commission until the fall and lightweight titleholder Anthony Pettis won’t be back until July at the earliest, which leaves you with seven championship belts in play for the first six months of the year.

Given that Demetrious Johnson and Chris Weidman just fought at the start and end of December, respectively, you’d have to assume they’re out of action until at least April, but most likely May or June. Ronda Rousey would be in that group too, but the women’s bantamweight champ is making a rapid turnaround to fill the main event position at UFC 170 at the end of February, which probably puts her on the shelf until the summer.

The bottom line is when it comes to potential headliners for major cards, the pickings are slim, and an injury to any one of these champions (knock on wood) would make things even more complicated, so why not spread them out?

Doing so would maximize their exposure, which is something both the UFC and its lesser-known champions need at this point.

The fact Aldo is still not a recognized, bankable entity for the organization is incredible, but also easily understood given that this will be the third time he’s defended his title in a co-main event. Each time that happens, the dominant featherweight champion doesn’t receive the same amount of press coverage and promotion as his contemporaries that earn top billing, which limits his exposure and development as a star.

Make no mistake about it — the guy is a superstar.

Unbeaten in 16 fights, he’s successfully defended the featherweight title seven times, including five times inside the Octagon, yet he’s still under the radar outside of the hardcore set.

While there is non-stop talk of Jon Jones’ record-setting accomplishments in the preamble to his fights, nothing of the sort accompanies Aldo’s bouts, even though he’s the first and only featherweight champion in UFC history and currently the longest reigning champion on the roster.

Barao, who dropped the interim tag from his championship moniker in advance of this weekend’s rematch with Faber, is in a comparable position.

Unbeaten since dropping his professional debut, the bantamweight titleholder is one of the best pound-for-pound talents in the UFC but is overshadowed by his challenger this weekend. He’s far less recognizable than current and former champions like Demetrious Johnson or Benson Henderson, two fighters that have benefitted from multiple opportunities to headline UFC on FOX events in the past.

UFC president Dana White likes to say fans didn’t really start to take to Anderson Silva until he kicked Vitor Belfort in the face at UFC 126, but that’s not really true — he started getting greater recognition heading into his initial showdown with Chael Sonnen at UFC 117 and it steamrolled from there. Once the UFC put their marketing efforts behind the then-middleweight champion, his popularity and drawing power took off.

It’s a lesson they should learn from when it comes to the likes of Aldo and Barao — give them the same opportunities as some of their championship colleagues, and the dominant Nova Uniao teammates will give fans a reason to keep tuning in to see them fight.

Don’t limit them to sharing the spotlight with another championship pairing that steals some of their shine or headlining comparatively weak events that allow for easy excuses like "people don’t like the lighter weight fighters" to be made.

Don’t treat these divisions like they’re the titles no one cares about and slot them into second position behind their heavier counterparts — it’s not something that would be done with a welterweight title fight, so stop doing it with the featherweight, bantamweight and flyweight champions.

If the UFC truly wants fans to invest in champions like Aldo and Barao, they have to it first. That starts by giving them the same opportunities and attention that are given to other UFC champions.

Given how sparse things are at the championship level right now, it makes no sense to stack an event with two title fights. Spread them out. Let each championship tandem enjoy the spotlight independently, and promote your least recognized champion as voraciously as you would the most well-known fighter on the roster.

Especially when it comes to fighters like Aldo and Barao, two champions with impressive arsenals that people will latch onto if they’re pushed and promoted like the dominant forces they are.