Jose Aldo will forever be linked to Conor McGregor whether he likes it or not. Maybe that’s why some people would love to see Aldo get another shot at “Notorious” after their lone meeting back in 2015 lasted just 13 seconds, but Aldo isn’t necessarily interested in running it back with McGregor.
Since their featherweight title fight back at UFC 194 Aldo and McGregor have gone their separate ways. McGregor moved up in weight and forged rivalries with the like of Nate Diaz and Khabib Nurmagomedov while turning into one of the more polarizing athletes in all of sports. Aldo, on the other hand, was forced to reinvent himself and eventually made the decision to move down to 135 pounds.
Since making his bantamweight debut in 2019 Aldo has produced a 2-2 record while losing to the likes of Petr Yan and Marlon Moraes. The results haven’t been great across the board, but Aldo is coming off a win over Pedro Munhoz at UFC 265 that has people wondering if the Brazilian legend is back to his old dominant ways.
After his win over Munhoz veteran MMA analyst Chael Sonnen questioned whether or not it would be a good time for Aldo to challenge McGregor in a rematch. While UFC could likely sell the fight and give McGregor a smaller opponent to deal with in his return from injury Aldo isn’t interested in running it back with his biggest rival ever.
“That’s what I don’t understand, brother,” Aldo told MMA Fighting. “Back when it should have happened, like they are going [other] rematches and trilogies, I didn’t have the opportunity, no one considered anything, and each one went their way. Now that the situation has inverted again, it feels like they have the obligation to book it.
“No, I don’t see myself fighting Conor. Never, I think. I can even say that. It might happen tomorrow, but that’s not the path. I root for him today, I hope he recovers from the injury and fights again at the highest level and becomes champion again, because that way he and I will always be together. No matter if I’m down and he’s up or the other way around, people will always put out names together, and that way we carry each other up.”
McGregor, who is coming off his second-straight loss to lightweight contender Dustin Poirier, is currently nursing a broken leg suffered at UFC 264 this past July. Once he returns he’ll look to fight Poirier for a fourth time and then possibly lock down another UFC title shot or a trilogy bout with Diaz. If any of those fall through then maybe McGregor would want to fight Aldo again, but Aldo is too focused on the bantamweight division to really pay attention.
“No, man, there’s no way,” Aldo said of a rematch at lightweight. “I’m going after a fight for the belt, I want to build this career at bantamweight and make history this way. I’m happy that Sonnen and others are talking about this rematch, but I don’t see myself [fighting him]. I see my next fight being at bantamweight, and that way we’ll be close to fighting for the belt.”