Report: Jose Aldo, Frankie Edgar Turned Down UFC 196 Bout With Conor McGregor

The MMA world received a bombshell of bad news this morning (Tues., February 23, 2016) when a broken foot forced lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos out of his awaited UFC 196 showdown with featherweight champion Conor McGregor, prompting a rush to find a replacement opponent for the rapidly approaching March 5 event from Las Vegas.

There was a windfall of top-ranked contenders who not surprisingly jumped on the opportunity quickly, with lightweights Anthony Pettis, Donald Cerrone, and Nate Diaz all throwing their names into the hat as potential replacements. Two fighters who aren’t going to be replacing ‘RDA,’ however, are McGregor’s featherweight counterparts Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar.

Longtime former champion Aldo, who was infamously knocked out by McGregor in a mere 13 seconds at UFC 194 after pulling out of their original match-up at UFC 189 in July 2015, is apparently not in shape to fight McGregor on short notice and is not a viable replacement. His Nova Uniao head coach Andre Pederneiras told Brazilian outlet Combate that it just wouldn’t happen:

“Dana (White) called me, telling what happened and asking if Aldo was in shape to fight. I said he wasn’t and that there wasn’t enough time, and unfortunately he wouldn’t be able to fight next week.”

That’s a far cry from Aldo’s Instagram post in January, where he said the only fight he would accept outside of a title shot was a rematch with McGregor, and he would take it ‘anytime, anywhere’:

“For everything I have done, everything I have accepted and mostly how the fight ended, I will not accept any other fight other than a title shot. My only exception would be fighting (McGregor), at any time, anywhere, and once that he is afraid and knows that I’m gonna win… Doesn’t have to be title fight against him. Keep my belt, but I wanna whoop (your) ass anywhere.”

UFC 196 will go down in only 11 days, so it’s not difficult to understand why Aldo was not in fight shape without a bout scheduled. However, the former champion has received a ton of criticism for his inactivity and frequent injury withdrawals over the past few years, and this would undoubtedly have been a huge boost back up to his standing as a fighter, both with his employer and fans.

Yet he’s not going to take advantage of the opportunity, and UFC President Dana White is understandably not happy with the tenuous situation. Read on to the next page to find out what other developments are arising in this mix-up….

According to White, who spoke up to Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole this morning, dos Anjos’ manager Ali Abdelaziz, who also manages Edgar and lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov, Edgar is also dealing with an injury and wouldn’t be able to fight. Abdelaziz said that Nurmagomedov offered to face McGregor, but with ‘The Eagle’ out of action going on two years, White found that to be a ridiculous proposition. He then got a bit miffed by all the fighters who say they want McGregor but are unwilling to deliver when the time actually comes:

“Ali is so full of [expletive],” White said. “What are we going to do, Khabib hasn’t fought in two years and we’re going to bring him in to save the show? Besides, Khabib has a fight and we gave that to Fox. It’s amazing, to be honest with you. All of these managers are out there jockeying and they say they want to fight Conor. You hear these guys screaming, ‘Conor, Conor, Conor,’ but then when it comes time to take a fight, they turn it down and they’re hurt.”

As far as McGregor is concerned, White described the Irishman’s reaction to dos Anjos’ injury, and not surprisingly, it was one of truly facing anyone at anytime:

“When we told Conor, he said, ‘Come on! This [expletive] guy! Oh my God! He’s pulling out?’ ” White said. “But when we went through the options, he said he’d fight any of them.

“I swear to God, he said, ‘I’ll fight anyone.’ He just doesn’t give a [expletive]. People talk about this strained relationship between us and Conor, and he has a different style than I’ve ever seen, but I have never seen anyone like Conor. The closest was Chuck Liddell, but we’ve never had one like Conor. You think he’s not hurt? But when he says he’s going to fight, he’s going to fight no matter what.”

‘The Notorious’ is just that in terms of facing whatever opponent the UFC puts in front of him, and he’s had no small number of chances after four of his eight originally scheduled opponents have pulled out of their bouts with him.

His chance to win the lightweight belt may be put off for the time being, but McGregor is going to fight at UFC 196 no matter whom it’s against. And while Aldo and Edgar may not be in peak shape right now, you have to wonder if passing up on this opportunity is seriously going to affect their chances of getting a coveted bout with McGregor in the future.

Should it?