The past 12 months have been somewhat tumultuous for UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo.
Aldo, unquestionably one of the greatest fighters in mixed martial arts history, was knocked out by Conor McGregor at UFC 194 one year ago. The 30-year-old lost his belt that night and his stock amongst the top stars in the sport took a nosedive.
Heading into 2017, Aldo is hoping to turn things around. He’s eyeing a rematch with McGregor—although if it ever did happen it would be at lightweight—plus an anticipated bout with rising star Max Holloway in the first half of the year should clear things up in the featherweight division.
The UFC’s 145-pound title picture is a muddled mess at the moment. The fact we’re once again referring to Aldo as featherweight champ is enough to raise eyebrows.
Aldo beat Frankie Edgar for the interim featherweight title at UFC 200 in July. The reason there was an interim belt to begin with was because the UFC allowed McGregor to attempt to avenge a March loss to Nate Diaz. UFC president Dana White said at the time that McGregor’s next fight after his rematch with Diaz at UFC 202 in August, win or lose, would be a title unification bout with Aldo. White said if McGregor didn’t defend the featherweight title after the second Diaz bout the loquacious Irishman would be stripped of his belt. That didn’t happen until late November after McGregor beat Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 to become lightweight champ. When the UFC took McGregor’s 145-pound strap the promotion also introduced a second interim title—which Max Holloway won at UFC 206—and Aldo was promoted to “undisputed champion” again.
Confusing isn’t it? All this was because McGregor refused to defend the featherweight title, something Aldo still hasn’t forgiven him for.
“I’ve always been the champion. The champion is the person that defends the belt, not the person that gets the belt and flees the division,” Aldo told MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani in a lengthy interview Wednesday. “I should have gotten an immediate rematch. It was completely warranted and what should have happened. It didn’t happen, though. When they gave me Frankie Edgar, I knew that belt wasn’t going to remain the interim belt. I knew Conor wasn’t coming back. Everyone knew he wasn’t coming back. That’s the real belt. I’m the one that has defended this belt. I’ve been the king of this division for a long time. I’ve never not seen myself as a champion. I lost a fight. That’s it.”
According to Aldo, White attempted to put together a rematch but explained that McGregor did not want to fight Aldo again.
“Guys who run from title defences are not champions,” Aldo said. “All Conor did was he beat the champion. But he never did what he had to do to become the champion. He’s never been the champion of the featherweight division.
“He’s two-faced. He says a lot of stuff to the press, but behind-the-scenes, he turns down fights left and right. He picks opponents. He picks events. He’s not willing to face challengers the way a champion should be ready to face challengers. That’s not a true champion.”
After McGregor avenged his loss to Diaz, Aldo felt it was only a matter of time before he got his McGregor rematch.
“I went to bed one night believing the UFC was going to announce my rematch with Conor McGregor and I woke up to read the news that they booked Eddie Alvarez instead,” he said. “My conversations with the UFC were, ‘It’s happening. We’re booking it.’ And then literally overnight something changed without my participation.”
Aldo has been frustrated with how the UFC has treated him ever since he fell victim to that McGregor counter left hand 13 seconds into the UFC 194 main event and he was talking about asking for his release from the UFC as recently as September. Aldo ultimately changed his tune and now seems ready to prepare for a title unification fight against Holloway, who called out Aldo after his win over Anthony Pettis earlier this month.
An Aldo-Holloway matchup had been proposed for UFC 208 on Feb. 11 in Brooklyn, N.Y., however Holloway is dealing with an ankle injury suffered in his fight with Pettis and isn’t supposed to train on it for 4-6 weeks on the recommendation of his doctors.
“When Holloway started talking [expletive], we approached UFC and made clear that I want to fight in Brooklyn,” Aldo said. “I’m flexible about my opponent. I even said, ‘Why don’t I go up in weight class and fight the No. 1 or No. 2 contender and start setting up a rematch with McGregor?’ There was some enthusiasm for that idea, but my understanding is some fighters turned down that fight. The UFC can’t put together a matchup if fighters are turning down fights.”
Aldo said he believes he will fight on either Friday March 3 or Saturday March 4. The UFC is holding events on back-to-back nights at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on those two dates. The Friday event will be televised and the Saturday card is UFC 209, which will be a pay-view-view event.
“I believe they will soon announce an interim lightweight title fight with me,” Aldo added. “They’ve been trying to find me an opponent, and surprise, surprise at least one has already turned down the fight against me. I’m waiting to see who they will find.”
We’ll soon find out if there’s any validity to these interim lightweight title claims but the more likely scenario is top lightweight contenders Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson will fight one another (potentially at UFC 209 though nothing has been finalized) with the winner getting McGregor later in the year, while Aldo faces Holloway.
