Looks like UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo is game to fight Conor McGregor even in his home town.
On Saturday, July 11, Conor McGregor beat Chad Mendes in an interim title fight at UFC 189. Mendes replaced Jose Aldo who pulled out from his bout with "The Notorious" just days before UFC 189 citing a rib injury. Fans haven't heard much from Aldo since then.
Though UFC 189 turned out to be one of the biggest and most exciting events in history, Aldo didn't even watch it on television from home in Brazil. However, Aldo's coach Andre Pederneiras did watch and relay information and fight accounts to him afterwards. The UFC featherweight champion himself wasn't interested to check the event out live, he told during a recent press conference.
"It's funny," Aldo said from his gym.
"When my friends aren't fighting, I don't even watch it," he noted.
"[Pederneiras] talked to me about it, said it's cool, that it was a good fight for us. He saw his game, that Chad was winning while he had gas, and that they shouldn't have stopped the fight. But when I'm not fighting, I don't read or watch anything."
It looks like watching would've been too painful for Aldo, who would've probably gotten his biggest stage and payday ever. Aldo would've loved to be in the Octagon, FOX Sports noted.
"I like those big events, and I was training well. We asked for a deadline to try to recover and fight injured, but I wasn't recovering as expected. I still feel the pain. I would have fought if I could., but I couldn't," Aldo explained.
"I was upset with this injury. This was one of the biggest fights in the history, and we had all the promotion, everything that was needed. I've never been through something like this, especially for a fight that everybody wanted to see. This fight would bring a lot of money."
Pederneiras told reporters that Aldo wants to resume training in about two weeks, but only after the doctors clear him, first.
That said, the team doesn't expect that Frankie Edgar will get an opportunity to fight McGregor before Aldo is healthy enough to do so. When Aldo finally meets McGregor, he doesn't care where it happens; in fact he would be game to fight in McGregor's home ground, Dublin.
"It would be great (to fight in Ireland), I don't see any problem with that," Aldo said. "They can say whatever they want. If they don't say it in Portuguese, I won't understand a word so I don't care. I'm anxious to fight already"
Aldo even sent a message to his potential opponent noting that he could "say whatever he wants, but his weapons are nowhere near what I'm showing him."
The UFC are not probable to stage Aldo vs. McGregor at UFC Dublin on Oct. 24 citing the fact that the bout would draw in much more money in a bigger venue in Las Vegas but Aldo has claimed he's ready for a fight on enemy territory, according to records on SportsJOE.
"Get ready, I'm coming," Aldo said.
