Jose Aldo: Conor McGregor Is Making Me Money

Decorated UFC featherweight champ Jose Aldo instantly became public enemy No. 1 in MMA this July when a broken rib suddenly and unceremoniously pushed him out of his long-awaited UFC 189 main event against soon-to-be interim champ and heated rival Conor McGregor.

With criticism seemingly coming down in heaps around “Junior,” the pound-for-pound king is back and scheduled to face McGregor in the main event of December’s UFC 194 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The hype and buzz around one of the UFC’s most promoted events ever is building for a card that is only 10 days away, and today (Wed., December 2, 2015) Aldo appeared alongside to McGregor on a conference call.

The Nova Uniao star said that unlike his lead-up to UFC 189, he’s now one hundred percent healthy and is ready to take on the loud Irishman once and for all (quotes via MMA Junkie):

“I’m 100 percent; since that last fight and since I got back in it, I’ve been healed up,” Aldo said through an interpreter on the UFC 194 media conference call. “I want this fight to happen, this is when it’s going to happen so I’m 100 percent right now.”

As many gear up for what they believe is the most pivotal title fight in UFC history, Aldo is taking the exact opposite stance by deeming it “just another fight” similar to all the top-ranked challenges he’s faced and defeated in his spotless octagon career:

“There’s really no difference (between this fight and my others); you’re going to see me go in there and get the win,” Aldo said. “I don’t really care how I win I just care about winning. Really the only difference is I always beat Americans and this time I’m going to beat an Irishman.

“To me he’s just the same. I’ve fought a lot of the top fighters out there and to me he’s really just another opponent that I have to go in there and beat.”

Aldo dubbed McGregor ‘the joker’ and even made a poster poking fun at the Irish trash talker after his impressive decision win over Chad Mendes in the main event of UFC 179 in October 2014, and he reiterated that nothing has changed on that front. The champ was once unable to bring in a big crowd due to his tendency to keep quiet and let his fists do his talking, but now he acknowledged that McGregor is bringing him popularity and money in droves:

“Nothing’s changed; he’s still the joker to me,” Aldo said. “He did good work, he’s bringing me money, but it’s still the same for me. … The guy’s worked for me; he’s basically making me money, so how could I be angry at him? I think he did very good for the weight class so I’m happy with that.”

With it impossible to deny McGregor’s positive impact on the featherweight division and its fighters, Aldo shook off his critics that say he doesn’t fight enough. He closed by stating his fights are so huge that there is simply less of them with each being the biggest of his fighting career:

“The reason that I don’t fight as often is because I’m involved in big fights; so this is another chance for the fans that don’t know me to be able to watch and get to know my work,” Aldo said. “Every fight’s the biggest fight of my career. Always the next one is the biggest one, so I’m looking at this one as the biggest fight of my career because it’s the next one.”