Jose Aldo rooting for Conor McGregor win against Michael Chandler at UFC 303: ‘I expect great things’

Jose Aldo rooting for Conor McGregor in fight with Michael Chandler at UFC 303 I expect great thingsJose Aldo will be rooting for Conor McGregor to have a successful comeback when he faces Michael Chandler at…

Jose Aldo rooting for Conor McGregor in fight with Michael Chandler at UFC 303 I expect great things

Jose Aldo will be rooting for Conor McGregor to have a successful comeback when he faces Michael Chandler at UFC 303 on June 29.

jose aldo conor mcgregor ufc
Mandatory Credit: Zuffa LLC

McGregor will be ending his three-year-long layoff due to a broken leg when he faces Chandler in a highly-anticipated fight. It’s a bout that has been in the works for quite some time and despite Conor McGregor and Jose Aldo being former rivals, the Brazilian says he will be rooting for the Irishman.

“I always root for the guys who I fought and the guys who have beat me because that just proves that I lost to the best. I hope that he can go in there and be the Conor of old and be aggressive, and go in there to finish the fight… I expect great things from that fight,” Jose Aldo said to MMAJunkie.

Despite McGregor knocking Aldo out in 13 seconds at UFC 194 in 2015 to win the featherweight title, the Brazilian will be cheering him on and thinks he can finish the Irishman.

Jose Aldo confirms UFC 301 fight is the last on his deal

Jose Aldo will be returning to the UFC on Saturday, May 4 when he takes on Jonathan Martinez.

Aldo had left the UFC after his loss to Merab Dvalishvili as he wanted to explore boxing options. He ended up having three boxing matches, as he will return to MMA to fight out his UFC deal as he says he will then explore more boxing options, including the match against Floyd Mayweather.

Aldo
Mandatory Credit: Alex Goodlett

“That’s basically what I told the UFC a couple months ago: I want to do this fight, see where I’m at, see how I do, see how I perform and then I can make a decision,” Aldo said to MMAJunkie. “I’m looking at maybe a big boxing fight maybe somewhere down the line later this year. But we’ll revisit that with the UFC once this fight is done with Jonathan Martinez.

Conor McGregor confirms return fight is set for UFC 303 in June against Michael Chandler
Mandatory Credit: Chris Unger – Zuffa LLC

“That fight with Floyd Mayweather was basically all set and done. Ali (Abdelaziz) was the one that was negotiating that and I don’t really know what happened and it ended up not panning out for us to fight in Saudi Arabia. But there’s a big event on Netflix later this year (with Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson), and hopefully, I can get on that. But we’ll have to see. There’s a lot of options floating.”

Before that can happen, Aldo is focused on his return fight in MMA against Martinez in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Michael Bisping welcomes trilogy fight with rival Luke Rockhold with Karate Combat: ‘I’d do it, 100 percent’

Michael Bisping welcomes trilogy fight with Luke Rockhold in Karate Combat I'd do it 100 percentMichael Bisping could be coming out of retirement to face Luke Rockhold at Karate Combat. Rockhold is coming off…

Michael Bisping welcomes trilogy fight with Luke Rockhold in Karate Combat I'd do it 100 percent

Michael Bisping could be coming out of retirement to face Luke Rockhold at Karate Combat.

Rockhold is coming off a knockout win over Joe Schilling in his Karate Combat debut over the weekend. It was a great performance from the former UFC middleweight champion, and now, Bisping says he’s interested in the trilogy match with Rockhold.

“Luke Rockhold [vs. Joe Schilling], I was doing a live to it, and everyone’s like, ‘You gotta do the trilogy.’ I’ll do Karate Kombat against Luke Rockhold. I’ll do it. I will have a trilogy with Luke Rockhold in Karate Kombat. I would love to… This is gathering momentum a little too quickly, let me see my hip doctor first and get my neck sorted. I’m joking. I’d do it. 100% I would,” Bisping said on his podcast.

Michael Bisping UFC
Mandatory Credit: Mike Roach – Zuffa LLC

Michael Bisping welcomes trilogy bout with Luke Rockhold

If Karate Combat can sign Michael Bisping and make the trilogy with Luke Rockhold, it would be a massive fight for the promotion to secure. But, whether or not Bisping can be cleared with his eye is uncertain.

Luke Rockhold shows interest in Lyoto Machida rematch

Although Michael Bisping is interested in having his trilogy with Luke Rockhold at Karate Combat, the former middleweight champion called out Lyoto Machida.

Michael Bisping, 2023, UFC
Mandatory Credit: Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Rockhold and Machida fought in the UFC in 2015 and Rockhold won by submission, which was the fight that got him the title shot. After his knockout over Joe Schilling, he called out Machida for his next appearance in Karate Combat.

Luke Rockhold eyes potential UFC return despite retiring it's on my terms

“There’s only one man I wanna fight in this pit, and that’s Lyoto Machida,” Rockhold said in his post-fight interview in Dubai (via MMAFighting). “And you’re lucky because they don’t allow elbows, so no more f****** nightmares about the elbows. Bring it. Let’s see what you got, let’s see what your paychecks look like. Bring out that chequebook. Lyoto, I know you need a payday, motherf*cker. Come get it.”

Rockhold has options for his next fight as both Bisping and Machida have now expressed interest in fighting him in Karate Combat.

‘Let’s Go, Colby!’

Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images

Garry believes Covington is using a fake foot injury to avoid a fight with ‘The Future’ at UFC 303. Ian Machado Garry is fighting a one-sided battle against Colby Covington online …..


UFC 273: Volkanovski v The Korean Zombie Zombie
Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images

Garry believes Covington is using a fake foot injury to avoid a fight with ‘The Future’ at UFC 303.

Ian Machado Garry is fighting a one-sided battle against Colby Covington online … and losing.

Garry has been calling out Covington since before “The Future” won at UFC 298. At first Covington seemed interested, and the two exchanged promos full of cringe trash talk. Colby leaned hard into material on Garry’s wife, while Ian attacked Colby’s BFF and former president Donald Trump, promising to “Make MMA great again.”

Then … nothing. No fight announcement. Garry had been hopeful that they would meet at UFC 303, but Jamahal Hill vs. Khalil Rountree was recently locked in as the event’s co-main, making a Covington vs. Garry fight less likely for the June 29th card.

“Everybody knows when my next fight is,” Garry said in a recent video on social media. “Everybody knows what it is. There’s no secret. All we need is Colby to sign the f—ing contract and say yes.”

“Let’s go Colby. Can’t talk all that s— and not back it up.”

Of course Colby can. The last thing “Chaos” said about the match-up before completely disappearing (as he always does between bouts) was that he refused to fight down the rankings. Which is a funny way to shut Ian down considering Garry has been using that same logic to avoid plenty of opponents too.

Now Garry has heard from the UFC that Covington’s foot is injured.

‘’Stop being a p—y, your foot is fine, agree to the fight,” he wrote in an unanswered DM to Covington. “You can’t talk all that s— and not back it up COWARD.’’

So it’s not looking good for a Covington vs. Garry showdown at UFC 303. Will “The Future” wait for “Chaos” to heal up? Or will the UFC manage to wrangle one of the other six fighters above him in the welterweight division for June?

Let us know in the comments below who you’d like to see Machado Garry fight next!

‘Let’s Go, Colby!’

Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images

Garry believes Covington is using a fake foot injury to avoid a fight with ‘The Future’ at UFC 303. Ian Machado Garry is fighting a one-sided battle against Colby Covington online …..


UFC 273: Volkanovski v The Korean Zombie Zombie
Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images

Garry believes Covington is using a fake foot injury to avoid a fight with ‘The Future’ at UFC 303.

Ian Machado Garry is fighting a one-sided battle against Colby Covington online … and losing.

Garry has been calling out Covington since before “The Future” won at UFC 298. At first Covington seemed interested, and the two exchanged promos full of cringe trash talk. Colby leaned hard into material on Garry’s wife, while Ian attacked Colby’s BFF and former president Donald Trump, promising to “Make MMA great again.”

Then … nothing. No fight announcement. Garry had been hopeful that they would meet at UFC 303, but Jamahal Hill vs. Khalil Rountree was recently locked in as the event’s co-main, making a Covington vs. Garry fight less likely for the June 29th card.

“Everybody knows when my next fight is,” Garry said in a recent video on social media. “Everybody knows what it is. There’s no secret. All we need is Colby to sign the f—ing contract and say yes.”

“Let’s go Colby. Can’t talk all that s— and not back it up.”

Of course Colby can. The last thing “Chaos” said about the match-up before completely disappearing (as he always does between bouts) was that he refused to fight down the rankings. Which is a funny way to shut Ian down considering Garry has been using that same logic to avoid plenty of opponents too.

Now Garry has heard from the UFC that Covington’s foot is injured.

‘’Stop being a p—y, your foot is fine, agree to the fight,” he wrote in an unanswered DM to Covington. “You can’t talk all that s— and not back it up COWARD.’’

So it’s not looking good for a Covington vs. Garry showdown at UFC 303. Will “The Future” wait for “Chaos” to heal up? Or will the UFC manage to wrangle one of the other six fighters above him in the welterweight division for June?

Let us know in the comments below who you’d like to see Machado Garry fight next!

UFC 301 Almost Had ‘Scarface’ Vs. ‘Dominator’

Photo by Al Bello/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

A clash of lighter-weight legends was planned for the Rio card in Brazil, but fell through. You’re not the only one to scratch your head at the UFC 301 co-main event…


UFC 129: Weigh-In
Photo by Al Bello/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

A clash of lighter-weight legends was planned for the Rio card in Brazil, but fell through.

You’re not the only one to scratch your head at the UFC 301 co-main event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil featuring Jose Aldo vs. Jonathan Martinez.

Aldo is a legendary champion — he was a dominant WEC featherweight champion, the first UFC featherweight champion, and he defended that title seven times. Martinez is a 10-3 veteran but has fought just twice on a UFC pay-per-view. So why match them up?

It turns out the original plan was much more interesting: Aldo was set to face Dominick Cruz, whose bantamweight accolades match Aldo’s featherweight ones. Unfortunately, those plans never came to fruition.

“Obviously it would’ve been good for me, for Dominick, for all the fans and the media who had been asking for this fight for such a long time,” Aldo said in an interview with MMA Junkie. “There’s a lot of history around a fight between myself and Dominick, but Jonathan Martinez is a very tough opponent and what really matters to me is I look at every fight like I’m fighting the best and I’m fighting the biggest challenge. That hasn’t changed.”

Now what’s most interesting about this fight is what comes after — Aldo confirmed it was the last bout on his UFC contract, and he’s excited to get back to boxing.

“I’m looking at maybe a big boxing fight maybe somewhere down the line later this year,” he said. “But we’ll revisit that with the UFC once this fight is done with Jonathan Martinez.”

Aldo has gone 2-0-1 in boxing since his two year retirement from MMA, and reveals how close he came to fighting Floyd Mayweather in Saudi Arabia.

“That fight with Floyd Mayweather was basically all set and done,” he said. “Ali [Abdelaziz] was the one that was negotiating that and I don’t really know what happened and it ended up not panning out for us to fight in Saudi Arabia.”

“But there’s a big [Tyson vs. Paul] event on Netflix later this year, and hopefully, I can get on that. But we’ll have to see. There’s a lot of options floating.”

First he’ll have to defeat Jonathan Martinez on May 4th.

UFC 301 Almost Had ‘Scarface’ Vs. ‘Dominator’

Photo by Al Bello/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

A clash of lighter-weight legends was planned for the Rio card in Brazil, but fell through. You’re not the only one to scratch your head at the UFC 301 co-main event…


UFC 129: Weigh-In
Photo by Al Bello/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

A clash of lighter-weight legends was planned for the Rio card in Brazil, but fell through.

You’re not the only one to scratch your head at the UFC 301 co-main event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil featuring Jose Aldo vs. Jonathan Martinez.

Aldo is a legendary champion — he was a dominant WEC featherweight champion, the first UFC featherweight champion, and he defended that title seven times. Martinez is a 10-3 veteran but has fought just twice on a UFC pay-per-view. So why match them up?

It turns out the original plan was much more interesting: Aldo was set to face Dominick Cruz, whose bantamweight accolades match Aldo’s featherweight ones. Unfortunately, those plans never came to fruition.

“Obviously it would’ve been good for me, for Dominick, for all the fans and the media who had been asking for this fight for such a long time,” Aldo said in an interview with MMA Junkie. “There’s a lot of history around a fight between myself and Dominick, but Jonathan Martinez is a very tough opponent and what really matters to me is I look at every fight like I’m fighting the best and I’m fighting the biggest challenge. That hasn’t changed.”

Now what’s most interesting about this fight is what comes after — Aldo confirmed it was the last bout on his UFC contract, and he’s excited to get back to boxing.

“I’m looking at maybe a big boxing fight maybe somewhere down the line later this year,” he said. “But we’ll revisit that with the UFC once this fight is done with Jonathan Martinez.”

Aldo has gone 2-0-1 in boxing since his two year retirement from MMA, and reveals how close he came to fighting Floyd Mayweather in Saudi Arabia.

“That fight with Floyd Mayweather was basically all set and done,” he said. “Ali [Abdelaziz] was the one that was negotiating that and I don’t really know what happened and it ended up not panning out for us to fight in Saudi Arabia.”

“But there’s a big [Tyson vs. Paul] event on Netflix later this year, and hopefully, I can get on that. But we’ll have to see. There’s a lot of options floating.”

First he’ll have to defeat Jonathan Martinez on May 4th.