Aldo fires back at Conor McGregor: Interim belt 'toy' to show 'drunk friends' in Ireland

Jose Aldo

Jose Aldo won’t be fighting next week at UFC 189 against Conor McGregor. But in the wake of his withdrawal, he has offered a rebuttal to McGregor’s comments about his injury and decision.

Aldo (25-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC), the UFC’s featherweight champion, was set to meet (17-2 MMA, 5-0 UFC) in the UFC 189 main event at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. A rib injury, however, forced him out of the fight – a decision that was made just two days ago. Chad Mendes (17-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) now meets McGregor for an interim belt.

McGregor wasn’t shy about saying he believes Aldo wasn’t injured enough to pull out of the fight, but is essentially running from him. An X-ray of Aldo’s injured rib might say otherwise.

Early Thursday, Aldo made a statement on his Facebook page and said if McGregor wins the interim belt, he’s winning “a toy” to show off to his “drunk friends” in Ireland.

Aldo’s statement, translated from Portuguese, read as follows:

For three months, on a daily basis, I have trained. I invested my time and money, bringing training partners from both Brazil and other countries, to carry out the best camp of my life and be ready to defend, for the eighth time, my belt on July 11. Unfortunately, I suffered a fractured rib during a workout, proven by official medical records. In spite of doing everything possible to fight, I had to withdraw, and that saddened me very much. Only I, my family, coaches and teammates know how much I tried my best to represent Brazil again.

The decision was made in respect to UFC and the fans who think I’m the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. I could not fight without being 100 percent, and with a fracture in the rib that could be worse if were to suffer a blow in that spot. Many people told me to fight anyway, on account of the money that could I would make. But I wouldn’t sell myself short for any amount. I fight because I love it, and I love my country. The money, to me, comes second. It is like a shadow: When you try to pick it up, you can’t, but when you walk forward, it follows you. The money ends at some point, but the legacy of my achievements will go down in history – and that is what is most valuable.

I have been a UFC champion since April 2011. I defended my belt seven times in four years, and I will do the eighth defense even in 2015 – an average of two title fights per year. That is not counting the WEC, where I was a champion in 2009. I cannot agree with the decision of the UFC in having an interim featherweight champion, justifying it with the five times that I could not defend the belt as scheduled.

If these fights had taken place, I would have done, in the UFC alone, 12 title fights in four years – an average of three fights per year, an average that no champion had. Rarely, some champions made three defenses in a year. So this cannot be the main reason to be given an interim title. But as the UFC is a private company of which I am hired, I cannot complain about their decisions, but I can’t say that I agree.

With regard to my opponent, who said I should take the fight like a man, I cannot say anything about a guy who mimics a TV character (the actor Travis Fimmel of the series “Vikings”). This is who he really wanted to be because he is ashamed of being who he really is, so much that mimics the character’s lines, actions and tattoos. He is an artist, but not a martial artist. It’s cheap comedy. He should look for a stage and not an octagon. The octagon is my kingdom and there there is only room for a king, who I am. If he wants to participate, he will have to be like the fool that he already is.

If he beats Chad Mendes, the only thing that he will have will be a toy belt to show his drunk friends in the bars of Ireland, because that is what this interim title represents for me: a toy. I am the champion.

UFC 189 takes place July 11 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.

“If a man is scared for his life, we cannot force him to step inside and face me,” McGregor said on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” when news of Aldo’s withdrawal was announced Tuesday. “I feel he’s afraid. The doctors have cleared him to fight – it’s a bruise. But he has still pulled out. So rightfully so, the belt should be taken from him and we should contest for the interim belt – or in my opinion, the real belt.

“I just feel he was beaten mentally before I had the chance to beat him physically. I felt through the (UFC 189) ‘World Tour,’ he was looking for his way out and thankfully for him, his coach, his team, they have found their way out.”

Aldo and McGregor, respectively ranked No. 1 and No. 6 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA featherweight rankings (Mendes is ranked No. 2), publicly bickered even before the fight was officially announced. White recently said the event was on pace for a million pay-per-view buys, a mark reached only nine times in company history.

White said after all the promotional push for the Aldo-McGregor fight – thousands of tickets are believed to have been sold to fans from Ireland coming to Las Vegas to see their national MMA hero – the show must, essentially, go on.

“It’s (Aldo’s) decision,” White said. “I don’t feel great about it. We’ve spent a lot of money promoting this fight. A lot of people are excited about the fight, so it’s definitely disappointing. I think (Mendes-McGregor) is going to be a great fight. Chad Mendes just fought Jose Aldo in a five-round war – literally one of the best fights I’ve seen. So it should be fun.”

For more on UFC 189, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.