Jose Aldo has only lost once in the past decade and you can guarantee he wants his revenge.
The UFC featherweight champion has been angling for a rematch against Conor McGregor ever since that Celtic Cross crumbled his air of invincibility to dust in just 13 seconds.
No matter what he might claim, it’s obvious that he would do just about anything to get another crack at the Notorious.
In 2016, he even requested a contract termination from the UFC after being refused the opportunity to exact revenge on Conor McGregor. He announced that he wanted to pursue other career opportunities, he’d be willing to fight the promotion in court in order to get out of his contract, if they forced him to stay he would be willing to intentionally lose fights and that not even a Red Panty Night offer would change his mind.
Shock horror, he changed his mind and he no longer has plans to retire. Be under no illusion, he wants to fight McGregor.
It is a year to the day since @TheNotoriousMMA shook the world and broke Jose Aldo's hearthttps://t.co/LM1HGspFJe
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) December 12, 2016
That’s not the story he told TV Combate on Sunday night though. When asked about McGregor’s pursuit of a crossover super fight against Floyd Mayweather, Scarface tried to pass off that he simply did not care what the Dubliner’s plans were (translation via MMA Fighting).
“I hope Conor gets f**ked, that’s what matters to me. I don’t give a damn about him. I’ve already said he’s shit, so what he does or doesn’t do, I don’t care. I worry about myself. I’m training to defend my belt. I want to fly higher.”
Aldo saying, ‘I don’t care’ in the context of McGregor doesn’t add up, Especially because he had just revealed that his lifelong dream was to become a boxing champion, but not for the money. Convenient timing considering McGregor has stated his intention to enter the ring for the biggest money fight in the history of combat sports.
However, his coach Andre Pederneiras chimed in and revealed Aldo’s true intentions. He explained why his fighter offered to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov for the interim lightweight strap despite the fact that he should be defending his belt against interim featherweight champion Max Holloway next.
It’s all a ploy to trap Aldo’s greatest foe, that acerbic-tongued Irishman.
“To avoid being on the sidelines waiting, we tried to get Aldo fighting the No. 1 ranked Khabib, so he could fight for the interim title and Conor McGregor would have no way of running. (McGregor) would have no escape at neither featherweight nor at lightweight. Unfortunately, Khabib’s father didn’t think it was a good fight for Khabib and decided not to let this fight happen.”
“(McGregor) has to fight and defend his title at lightweight, but he knows that if he gets Khabib or (Tony) Ferguson, I don’t know how that fight will be. I think he’s afraid of this fight more than anything — except fighting Aldo again, because relinquishing a belt to avoid a rematch, I don’t think you can be more afraid than that.”
Pull the other one, Jose.
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