Following his victory over Chad Mendes on Saturday night in the main event of UFC 179, UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo Jr. made an obvious reference to Conor McGregor, but didn’t deign to say his name.
“My court is full now,” Aldo said. “I am the king, Chad is the prince, and there is a joker now.”
At the post-fight press conference, Aldo was asked to elaborate on his comments. And once again, he refused to reference McGregor, who was seated cageside in Rio de Janeiro, by name.
“He’s a guy who just talks,” Aldo said through an interpreter. “He hasn’t fought anyone as tough as us. So to get here right now and talk, I’ve heard that a lot. Chael Sonnen did that a lot in his weight class, and now he’s lost, so he can talk as much as he wants.”
Aldo, however, had high praise for Mendes, with whom he had just gone through a 25-minute war.
“We’re grounded, we have our feet on the ground,” Aldo said. “Chad and I, we know what the weight class is like. We’re athletes, we have to respect each other, we know that in there we make it happen, and that’s what we wanted to say.”
Even though Aldo owns two victories over Mendes, he won’t rule out a third fight with his vanquished foe.
“He’s still very good,” Aldo said. “He’s got great potential and in the future, we could meet again. I hope that we have another great fight, that way our pockets will be always full.”