Jose Aldo is not backing down from his upcoming title defense against Conor McGregor despite some torn cartilage and a bruised rib bone.
UFC president Dana White recently dubbed Jose Aldo-Conor McGregor July 11 featherweight bout as "Fight of the Century," and since the UFC featherweight champion plans to defend his title against McGregor despite suffering a bone bruise to his rib cage and cartilage, earlier this week, it might turn out to be exactly that.
Aldo's decision to fight in the UFC 189 main event next month is good news for a lot of people, especially for Aldo and McGregor, financially. The UFC has earlier noted that they have put a record amount of promotion money into Jose Aldo-Conor McGregor mega fight, and judging by the looks of it, it will pay off.
The UFC's most dominant and longest reigning world champion Aldo takes on one of UFC's fastest rising stars, McGregor, and the personal enmity between the two is no secret, FOX Sports noted.
A statement released by the UFC on Wednesday, June 24, noted that Aldo had suffered a fractured rib while training in Rio de Janeiro. The UFC officials later reported that the 28-year-old champion was re-examined and it was determined the injury was not fractured rub, paving the way for Aldo to make his eighth title defense against McGregor at UFC 189 in Las Vegas, according to reports on ESPN.
The statement read, "In light of recent reports regarding the status of UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo, UFC has received official medical confirmation from several doctors that Aldo did not suffer a broken rib."
"Following a review of the scans, it has been determined that the champion suffered a bone bruise to his rib and cartilage injury during training.
"With the news, Aldo has expressed that he has every intention of facing Conor McGregor at UFC 189."
That being said, the Irish contender insists Aldo doesn't need to worry about his feeble ribs.
"I'm going to go for the chin; I want to knock him out," "The Notorious" said.
"He doesn't need to worry about his ribs, and I'm not going to go out and purposely target an area. If he shows up and fights, which he should do, we'll fight as scheduled.
"I'm not going to start diving at things. I'm just going to fight my fight. It's the chin I am hunting."
Francisco Aguilar, chairman of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, told ESPN.com that the commission's physicians will carefully examine Aldo before the fight and will confirm the absence of a fractured rib independently.
In case, Aldo is unfit to compete, the UFC has announced two-time title challenger Chad Mendes (17-2) would replace Aldo on the highly-anticipated PPV, which is slated to take place inside MGM Grand Garden Arena. In that case, the winner of the fight will be awarded an interim title.
While McGregor remains unbeaten, having finished his past three fights via knockout, Aldo is undefeated in the UFC and hasn't lost in almost a decade.
