Why McGregor jumped the cage for Aldo: 'I was going to kill that little Brazilian'

Why did Conor McGregor jump the cage immediately after his UFC Fight Night 59 win and confront champion Jose Aldo? It’s not because he’s a romantic.

The scene, which followed McGregor’s second-round TKO victory over fellow featherweight Dennis Siver (22-10 MMA, 11-7 UFC) in Sunday’s FOX Sports 1-televised headliner, was perhaps the most memorable one at Boston’s TD Garden.

With the victory, McGregor (17-2 MMA, 5-0 UFC) secured a fight with Aldo (25-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC), the UFC’s long-reigning 145-pound champ. It’s tentatively planned for May 23 at UFC 187, according to UFC President Dana White.

But why the hard feelings and the need to jump into the crowd for the confrontation?

“I don’t know,” McGregor said after the event. “I just saw his skinny Brazilian head, and I knew they were filming him over there. ‘What’s he doing there, sitting front row?’

“They thought I was going to see my girlfriend. They must’ve thought I was a romantic. But I was going to kill that little Brazilian. But Pat, Lorenzo (Fertitta’s) right hand, intervened. And thankfully, because I like money. And when fights happen outside the octagon, they take your money. And I want to keep my money.”

ESPN MMA reporter Brett Okamoto then asked McGregor what he saw in Aldo and whether there was any type of reaction.

“I just see a skinny little Brazilian,” he said. “They all seem small to me. It’s hard work making this weight, but I make it correct. I make it professionally. And when I’m in there against these people, they’re small. There is no pop. They seem timid. I was just looking at him, and he looked like a little skinny Brazilian from the favelas. That was it. The same as the way Diego (Sanchez) looked, like a little 12-year-old boy body.”

It appears the in-crowd confrontation was needed since one in the cage wasn’t going to happen. According to White, Aldo said he wouldn’t enter the cage for the typical pre-fight face-off.

“He’s superstitious,” White said. “He says he doesn’t like to step into the octagon unless he’s fighting. So he’s superstitious about it, but apparently no one told (commentator Joe) Rogan that, so it got a little awkward there for a moment.”

That didn’t sit well with McGregor.

“Superstitions and rituals, for me – and it always has been – it’s another word for fear,” he said. “He should have come into the f-cking octagon. What does he want? Come in. Come in and say what he has to say. He keeps saying all these things, but face to face, he don’t say nothing. That’s all I know.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 59, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

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