Imagine what might happen if a challenger for the UFC heavyweight title swiped Cain Velasquez's championship belt during a press conference and taunted him with it.
Or if someone tried to pull such a stunt with middleweight champion Chris Weidman.
You don't have to stretch too far to know how UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones would react. It took much less provocation, after all, for Jones and Daniel Cormier to engage in an all-out brawl in the lobby of the MGM Grand hotel during a press conference last summer.
So how was Conor McGregor able to get away with a flagrant show of disrespect against longtime featherweight champion Jose Aldo Jr.?
In the final event of a near-two-week media tour promoting their July 11 fight at UFC 189 in Las Vegas, McGregor snuck over to the other side of the stage and took Aldo's belt. UFC president Dana White stepped between McGregor and an angered Aldo before things could get physical, but not before McGregor held the belt aloft to the delight of his hometown Dublin fans.
"He can say whatever he wants," Aldo told a gathering of Brazilian reporters upon returning home from the tour. "He can do whatever he wants. I don't care. I will always fight for me. I don't give a damn what he says. I'm focused on myself, on my gym and on my friends."
Aldo has been featherweight champion since Nov. 18, 2009, when he scored a TKO victory over Mike Brown to win the World Extreme Cagefighting championship, which was then regarded as the premiere 145-pound title in the sport. The letters on his belt changed from WEC to UFC when Zuffa, parent company of both promotions, folded WEC into the UFC in late 2010.
At just over five years, four months, and counting, Aldo's title reign is third-longest reign in Zuffa history, behind former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva (six years, nine months) and UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre (his second reign lasted five years, eight months).
The Manaus, Brazil native's body of work stands up with the résumés of the greatest champions in MMA history. Aldo has won 18 straight fights since suffering his only career loss in 2005. He's had 10 successful defenses of his WEC/UFC titles. He's defeated four of his top five contenders in the official UFC divisional rankings, including twice defeating both Chad Mendes and Cub Swanson.
And yet, Aldo, up until this point, has never clicked with the audience the way the sport's other great champions have. Fans either loved or hated champions like Silva, St-Pierre, Jones, and Fedor Emelinanenko.
Aldo, however, has often been placed on a double-title-fight pay-per-view cards, a sign the promotion isn't confident in his headlining abilities.
So why hasn't Aldo clicked with the audience, and why does someone like McGregor feel like he can get away with a flagrant show of disrespect?
For one thing, the champion has never made too much of an attempt to market himself. Silva, like Aldo, is also from Brazil, and after winning the middleweight championship, he both took the time to learn English and bought a home in Southern California. St-Pierre, for his part, is a natural introvert, but he developed a huge following for his respectful approach and adaption of traditional martial arts values, and he aligned himself with big-league sports management teams, who maximized his visibility and marketability.
Aldo's done none of the above. Up until this point in his career, at least, he's seemed content to stay a star in Brazil. Before the UFC 189 tour came along, he was rarely heard from in North America between fights. Several injury sabbaticals during his title reign hasn't helped, either.
Of course, that doesn't mean that Aldo will never have the opportunity to become a superstar. If anything, this is his chance for his big breakthrough. Although it was surreal watching a fighter with 14 career knockouts come off like he was being bullied – not just by McGregor, but by the boozy and boisterous Dublin crowd – July 11 will represent the mega-fight, and giant payday, that Aldo has long desired.
For his part, Aldo doesn't seem to be taking the rude reception too seriously. Upon returning home to Rio, he told a gathering of reporters he actually sort of liked the Irish people.
"Ireland was really cold and windy, so that was bad," Aldo said. "About the fans, I knew that they would support him, like my fans were on my side when I was in Brazil. But I walked in the streets with normal people and thought the Irish people were very warm and receptive."
Every fighter needs a major foil to put him over the top. Silva, like Aldo, wasn't much of a draw in the early part of his reign, and he didn't become an A-list draw until he found a mouthy antagonist in Chael Sonnen.
Aldo seems to have found his Sonnen, so to speak, in McGregor. Aldo vs. McGregor is shaping up to be the UFC's biggest fight since Jones vs. Cormier last December. The event is the UFC's hottest ticket in Las Vegas in quite some time, as the MGM Grand has nearly sold out despite high ticket prices.
The biggest worldwide audience of Aldo's career will watch him square off with McGregor. Sure, the masses enjoy being entertained by a guy with a big mouth. But they also enjoy watching the bully get his just deserts. If Aldo gets the job done against McGregor, we'll probably stop talking about how he can't connect with the audience.
And Aldo, for all his understated demeanor, seems to understand it.
'After I win, McGregor will disappear."
Follow Dave Doyle on Twitter: @DaveDoyleMMA.
