One week out from UFC 200 and Jose Aldo appears to still be focusing on one man only.
And it’s not Frankie Edgar, the man who will be standing between him and the interim featherweight strap at the landmark card in Las Vegas on July 9.
Speaking to MMA Fighting at a UFC 200 media day in Rio de Janeiro, the former featherweight king seemed very focused on the man who dethroned him in 13-seconds at UFC 194, Conor McGregor.
“We catch him in the street. No matter how, we will fight. Fuck it.”
Aldo has a lot of miles on the odometer, with 27 professional fights under his belt since his debut in 2004. After that seismic Celtic cross rendered him unconscious and brought his 10-year unbeaten run to an end, it was thought that perhaps Scarface could be edging closer to hanging his gloves up for good.
When asked if he would retire before getting another crack at the Notorious, Aldo did not mince his words.
“No way! Only if he stops fighting. As long as he’s in the UFC, this fight will happen. That’s a fact. We will get the belt back and be champion again.”
“We’ll move up. The UFC will do this fight. It doesn’t matter at which weight. I don’t care.”
Aldo trying to secure another red panty night is not a new thing, but the timing of these comments seem a bit odd. They come less than a week after the Brazilian claimed to have put all that McGregor stuff behind him during the UFC 200 conference call.
“I don’t even look at it. It’s part of the past. I only think about Frankie Edgar today and winning my next fight. I don’t look at things in the past, looking and suffering. It’s over, it’s in the past. I buried it, put a rock over it. I walk forward, always.”
Hmm… walking forward while rubbernecking isn’t necessarily the best way of progressing. We’ll have to wait to see if Aldo really is solely focusing on extremely dangerous contender Frankie Edgar when the pair duke it out at UFC 200.
