Jose Aldo said ‘any time, anywhere’. But when the last-minute call came, he told the UFC where to go.
10 years unbeaten and a 25-fight winning streak meant little to the UFC chiefs after Conor McGregor KO’d the Brazilian just 13 seconds into their bout to claim the featherweight title.
But Aldo has told his employers that his next fight must be for a title.
It is unsurprising, then, that he wasn’t too enthused about fighting McGregor at either lightweight or a catch-weight as there was no way the Dubliner would have dropped to 145lbs on such short notice.
On last night’s MMA Hour, Aldo spoke about the fact that he was not ready to take a fight on 10 days’ notice after just being medically cleared for a return to training. He said:
“Any professional needs time to train. It’s not a cockfight where I go there and put my rooster to fight. It’s a high-level sport, I’m going there to do my job. When I have time to train, it can happen at any time, anywhere.”
The Brazilian reiterated that his next fight would be for featherweight gold.
“I can’t speak for others, and I don’t care what they say. I know I deserve an immediate rematch.
“People who say I don’t, I don’t care about them. The important is what the UFC thinks and what we think. We came to the conclusion that we’re having an immediate rematch.”
Aldo says he wants to fight at UFC 200, is not interested in fighting Frankie Edgar again, and wants that title fight whether McGregor is there to defend it or not.
A mind-twizzler for the UFC brass.
