Saturday night worked out darn well for the newly minted interim UFC featherweight champion, Conor McGregor. The Irish striker overcame some early adversity in his match at UFC 189 against Chad Mendes, wounding the accomplished wrestler with body kicks before scoring an impressive second-round knockout with a devastating left hand. While he would receive a 12-pound piece of jewelry for his efforts, the ghost of the true featherweight champ, Jose Aldo, loomed large over the proceedings.
Conor finally makes it to the #UFC189 post-fight presser with his shiny interim belt. pic.twitter.com/ahwuCpC967
— Bleacher Report MMA (@BR_MMA) July 12, 2015
When pressed about his rival at the post-fight press conference, however, McGregor was in no mood to discuss him or their likely fight. Check out what he had to say at the post-fight press conference below (and warning, NSFW language peppered throughout):
“I’m going to put Jose at a distant memory right now because I don’t think he deserves to be spoken about,” he said to the assembled media. “He didn’t show up. … This was the event we built. He should have made that walk.”
McGregor, of course, is frustrated over Aldo’s withdrawal from the fight because of an injured rib. Two weeks ago, word broke through the Brazilian media (h/t MMAWeekly.com) that Aldo had suffered a broken rib. While that should have theoretically nixed the fight without incident, a confusing back–and–forth between the Aldo camp and UFC President Dana White regarding whether or not Aldo was physically capable of fighting (and whether or not he actually had a broken rib) erupted.
McGregor, unsurprisingly, took the opportunity to barb Aldo, questioning his confidence and willingness to fight him while boasting that he essentially trained for the fight “in a physical therapist’s room.”
While he would go on to say that Aldo was “done” and implied that a title unification bout may never actually occur, that should be taken with many grains of salt. Aldo vs. McGregor represents the biggest fight the UFC can make at the moment, and all involved parties stand to make a fair bit of cash, should it go down.
Watch Bleacher Report MMA over the coming months for more news on McGregor and Aldo…and keep an eye out for details on the soon-to-be-rescheduled title fight.
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