Jose Aldo: I Don’t Want To Fight Conor McGregor At Featherweight

UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo desperately wants to avenge his UFC 194 loss to lightweight champion Conor McGregor, in which the Irishman handed Aldo his first loss in nearly a decade to take away the Brazilian’s 145-pound title at the time.

Since then McGregor has been involved in a massive rivalry with Nate Diaz in the 170-pound division, and made history against Eddie Alvarez with a second round TKO victory in Madison Square Garden last month to become the promotion’s first dual-weight champion of all time. Aldo has competed only once since the brutal first round knockout loss in December of 2015, winning the interim 145-pound title at UFC 200 against Frankie Edgar.

Now that McGregor has been stripped of his featherweight title, Aldo has been promoted to undisputed champion at 145 pounds, and Max Holloway has secured the interim title, a unification bout between ‘Scarface’ and ‘Blessed’ is what is expected to go down next. While Holloway is most likely the next match-up for Aldo, the Brazilian’s main focus seems to be avenging his loss to McGregor as soon as possible.

During a recent interview with AG.fight, courtesy of Bloody Elbow, Aldo stated that if he does get his shot at redemption against the heavy-handed Irishman, he wants the bout to be in the lightweight division, rather than the 145-pound weight class they competed in for their initial meeting:

“I want to get a fight with Conor, but as he is running from the fight, I want to see how things are going to be in the division,” Aldo said. “But we will fight at lightweight. I don’t want to fight him at featherweight. I’m the champion, and I’ve been beating everyone.

“I want to fight in another division, too, since this is possible now. It is not possible just for one guy. I will ask for a fight, and I will also deny fights if I want to. Since [UFC president Dana White] said that he doesn’t force anybody to fight… This is me right now.”

As far as the current state of the 145-pound division, Aldo is not a fan of the interim titles that have been in circulation throughout the weight class as of late, calling it nothing more than a ploy by the UFC to try and save events:

“This interim belt is bulls**t,” Aldo said. “Even when I won it [in July at UFC 200] I said that. It is just a f****ing excuse that someone created to save events. That is what this belt means. I’m the champion, and I will be waiting to defend my title. If it is not going to be against [Holloway], I could do a superfight or fight in another division.”

For now no official date has been given for a Aldo and Holloway unification bout, but the expected date circling the newswire is the February 11th slot that plays host to UFC 208 in Brooklyn, New York.