As Jose Aldo calls for rematch, Conor McGregor questions ex-champ's timing

It didn’t take long for former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo to weigh in on the outcome of Saturday’s UFC 196 pay-per-view headliner.

Soon after the man who dethroned Aldo, Conor McGregor (19-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC), suffered a non-title loss to Nate Diaz (19-10 MMA, 14-8 UFC) in a welterweight bout at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena, Aldo (25-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC) issued a tweet to McGregor.

Aldo wants the next crack at McGregor, and he wants it to be part of July’s milestone UFC 200 event (via Twitter):

Aldo, of course, lost his title in quick and decisive fashion in December at UFC 194, when McGregor blasted him with a punch and won the title fight in just 13 seconds.

According to UFC President Dana White, Aldo was offered the rematch with McGregor, who originally was slated to meet lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos, at UFC 196. However, the Brazilian turned it down since he said he wasn’t in fighting shape and had just 11 days’ notice.

That fact wasn’t lost on McGregor, who addressed Aldo’s tweet after the event.

“I just think it’s – he had an opportunity to show up, and he didn’t,” McGregor said. “He could be sitting across – he could be sitting where Nate’s sitting. He was the first choice. He said, ‘any time, any place, anywhere.’ And then, it wasn’t any time, any place, anywhere.

“Now another man gets a victory over me, and he celebrates it? That’s the sign of a loser. That’s the sign of somebody – that’s the sign of a runner-up. That’s not the sign of a champion.”

Aldo, though, could very well get his wish. Following UFC 196, McGregor said his next fight is likely to come at featherweight, though Frankie Edgar (20-4-1 MMA, 14-4-1 UFC) is also a candidate for the bout.

For more on UFC 196, check out the UFC Events section of the site. And for more on UFC 200, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.