Jose Aldo really wanted that rematch with ‘The Notorious.’
The former UFC featherweight champion is baffled at why Conor McGregor gets another shot at Nate Diaz when he was beaten so comprehensively back at UFC 196.
It was confirmed earlier this week that McGregor would be meeting Diaz at UFC 200 while Aldo, who hasn’t fought since being knocked out by McGregor in December, would face Frankie Edgar for the UFC interim featherweight title.
And the Brazilian is left both bemused and confused by the UFC matchmakers’ thought process.
“You know as an athlete obviously it’s good because I get to fight, but as a fan it sucks. There’s not much I can say but it really doesn’t have any logic behind it,” Aldo told FOX Sports.
“To me it makes no sense really. Because everyone thought he was going to come back and defend his title and now he’s fighting Nate again. It’s a fight that doesn’t get anyone, anywhere. It doesn’t get Conor anywhere. It doesn’t get Nate anywhere. So it really makes no sense, I don’t know what’s going on.”
Diaz shocked the world by forcing McGregor to submit to a rear naked choke last month and Aldo doesn’t anticipate anything but a similar result when the pair meet again in the main event of UFC 200.
“I don’t think there’s any way for it to be different,” he said. “We saw what happened last time. Maybe the only difference is that Nate is going to be even better prepared and Conor’s shame is going to be even greater.
“He needs to come back to featherweight. There’s no way he can just hold onto that belt for a long time. By the end of the year he needs to come back to featherweight.”
McGregor’s journey up to welterweight, and resultant holding up of the title picture at featherweight, has been ridiculed by many in the MMA community but Aldo is confident that it doesn’t matter all that much as he believes that McGregor, and his power in the promotion, will be a thing of the past by the end of 2016.
“I’ve said from the very beginning — by the end of this year, he’s not going to be holding any belts,” Aldo added. “I’m going to be holding the belt by the end of the year and he’s just going be back in the land of forgotten heroes.”
