Current featherweight MMA champion, Conor McGregor, was supposed to fight Rafael dos Anjos this coming UFC 196. Unfortunately, RDA suffered an injury while training so he had to be pulled out from the fight.
One of the options was to get recently-defeated Jose Aldo. The former MMA featherweight champion lost his belt to McGregor last November in just 13 seconds into round 1. To everyone’s suprise, McGregor got a lucky powerful punch which knocked Aldo out. With this new opportunity given to Aldo, it may seem the perfect time to get back at McGregor. However, Aldo’s MMA coach Andre Pederneiras revealed that they had no choice but to decline the offer.
“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,” Pederneiras said during a recent interview with Combate.
Last January 27th, the former MMA champ posted a message on his Instagram account saying that he would only accept to get back inside the cage if it’s a title fight.
The only exception with this statement is that Aldo would fight McGregor anytime and anywhere. Here’s what he posted in his Instagram account:
“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.”
During a recent media coverage in Aldo’s hometown, Rio de Janeiro, Aldo said that he had just returned from training and getting himself better for his next MMA fight with McGregor. However, he didn’t anticipate his next move to “be decided until dos Anjos’ fight with Conor.”