LOS ANGELES — Conor McGregor has taken to borrowing Ronda Rousey’s catchphrase.
The way the UFC interim featherweight champion sees it, Aldo is, to use Rousey’s catchphrase, the featherweight division’s “do-nothing b—-.”
McGregor told reporters at a Wednesday media event in downtown LA that he’s the one who has catapulted the featherweight division into the main event slot, unlike Aldo, the longtime featherweight champ.
“Before me, there was no main event featherweight fight. No featherweights would fight in the main event unless the world title was at stake,” McGregor said. “And even then, because Jose is a ‘do-nothing b—-‘ as Ronda would say, he fights very little, it was maybe one or two. Now since I burst on the scene, there are eight, nine, 10 featherweight main events.”
McGregor, who coaches opposite Urijah Faber in the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter, said that Aldo was brought into the TUF gym for the final day of taping, where the two shook hands after a conversation.
But he also said, after Aldo dropped out of their planned UFC 189 fight after an injury, that he’s going to take a different approach to Aldo this time around.
“I’m trying to be positive with him,” McGregor said. “They brought him into The Ultimate Fighter gym on the final day. I shook his hand, I’m not trying to scare him. I cannot scare him anymore. I want to cuddle him and tell him that it’s going to be okay. I want to shake his hand and show him its okay. I want to tell him stop being a p—-, it will be over soon and you’ll be back to your normal life with your wife and your kids. Don’t worry, it will be over soon.”