Conor McGregor: I Was Injured, Jose Aldo Should Have Made That Walk

With the UFC interim featherweight championship now his, Conor McGregor delivered on his massive hype by coming from behind to destroy Chad Mendes in the main event of last night’s (Sat., July 11, 2015) UFC 189 pay-per-view (PPV) from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada (watch highlights right here).

But the ‘Notorious’ was supposed to fight undisputed featherweight champ Jose Aldo at the record-breaking event. Aldo infamously withdrew with a rib injury that he insisted was broken, while UFC doctors apparently cleared him to fight after finding him to only have a bruised rib. In any case, McGregor revealed at the event’s post-fight presser that he was dealing with worse ailments than Aldo:

“Just know that, I had a hell of a lot more wrong with e than a bruised rib, and I still showed up. I prepared for this camp essentially in the physical therapist room, you know what I mean? I had a lot to deal with on top of this camp.”

Now that his long-awaited match-up with the longtime champ is most likely next, it would seem like the only things holding it back from becoming the biggest fight of all-time is a healthy Aldo, a date, and location. While Dublin soccer stadium Croke Park has been teased as a potential locale, McGregor actually shot that down by saying he heard it may go down at the MGM’s new arena in Las Vegas:

“We know we could do a stadium no problem, but we heard about the new Vegas arena that’s opening up. I don’t know; I heard maybe they are planning Vegas for it, but I’m open. The stadium show in Dublin will happen, make no mistake about that.”

Overall, McGregor didn’t want to speak much of his Nova Uniao rival, noting that he should have toughed it out to show up and fight at UFC 189. ‘Notorious’ continued his insistence that Aldo was supposedly done with the fight game, choosing to celebrate his night and deal with ‘Junior’ at a later time:

“But I’m gonna put Jose at a distant memory right now, because I don’t think he deserves to be spoken about here. He didn’t show up. This was, this is the event that we built. He should have made that walk, and respect to Chad for making that walk and showing up. But in my opinion, Jose’s done. If it comes back around, we’ll discuss it then. But right now, this is my night.”

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