Jose Aldo: Dana White Told Me Conor McGregor Will Fight At 145 Next
Coming off of his dominant five round victory over Frankie Edgar for the interim 145-pound title at UFC 200, former UFC featherweight king Jose Aldo is ready for his shot at vengeance against the man who took away his decade of dominance in a mere 13-seconds, Conor McGregor.
Since winning the title, however, McGregor has been embroiled in a welterweight rivalry with Stockton Native Nate Diaz who handed the brash Irishman his first career UFC loss at UFC 196. McGregor succumbed to Diaz’s superior ground game after tapping to a rear-naked choke, following being rocked by Diaz after a 1-2 combo landed flush on McGregor’s chin.
McGregor has been obsessed with avenging the loss to Diaz, and will now rematch his counterpart in the main event of UFC 202 in Las Vegas. The featherweight division has been subsequently put on hold while McGregor handles his business at 170-pounds, forcing the implication of the interim featherweight strap that rests around Aldo’s waist.
While many mixed martial arts (MMA) fans have sceptisized weather or not McGregor will ever return to the featherweight division, given the fact that the weight cut is a strenuous one for the Irish champ, Aldo claims that UFC President Dana White has assured him McGregor’s next bout will be contested at the 145-pound weight class.
During a recent media scrum in Brazil, courtesy of The Daily Star UK, Aldo had this to say:
“Dana said his next fight has to be at featherweight, so I’m hopeful. I’m thinking about that and hope that is the case. But if it’s not, I have no problem. I want to be champion. Whoever they put in there, I will win.”
McGregor and Aldo originally met in the main event of UFC 194, after their first scheduled bout at UFC 189 fell through, after nearly a year of heavy promotion for the most anticipated featherweight contest in UFC history.
With a quick swipe of a counter-left hook, ‘Notorious’ solidified himself as the man in the featherweight division by shutting the Brazilian’s lights out for the first time in his historic career.
Aldo would go back to the drawing board and return against Frankie Edgar for the interim title at UFC 200, and looked to be in phenomenal condition throughout his five round dismantling of the former 155-pound champion.
Pending the result of McGregor vs Diaz II later this month, one can’t help but ponder the possibility of the two hated rivals meeting once again in the main event of UFC 205 from Madison Square Garden.
Both men seem to have something to prove as many regard McGregor’s sudden knockout of Aldo as a simply the luck of the Irish, and Aldo needs to get over the hump of having lost to the man he holds so much spite for.
