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Jose Aldo Claims He Will Fight For Interim Lightweight Title in 2017

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Aldo makes a somewhat surprising revelation regarding his next fight, and plots a rematch with McGregor.

UFC 194 in December 2015 saw the dethroning of the first and only featherweight champion in the promotion’s history. After months of mental warfare, a world tour [initially for UFC189] and a rescheduled fight, it took “The Notorious” a meagre 13 seconds to topple “Scarface” to claim the 145 pound strap. Now lightweight champion of the world, McGregor has since become an MMA global phenomenon. Aldo, on the other hand, has had to rebuild, and he is doing a good job so far.

Just over one year later, Aldo (28-26-2) is once again king of his division. McGregor’s “relinquishing” of the title he effortlessly took from the former pound for pound #1 may be as unceremonious a way to reclaim his belt, but the main thing for “Junior” is that he is back where he belongs.

The ex-WEC Featherweight Champion did not get his gold back as he wanted to (in the octagon). The UFC rather unceremoniously announced that the SBG Ireland man had relinquished his title, effectively handing it to him [Aldo] without a single punch being thrown. There is no denying that we have seen an ignoble side of Nova União’s greatest fighter. 12 months of bickering, insults and diatribe (plus a half-hearted retirement) have all but banished the once calm and collected reputation of the 30 year old. Revenge against McGregor has been a consistent theme in his frustrations, however.

It was expected that the Brazilian would face newly-crowned, interim featherweight champion Max Holloway at UFC 208 this coming February. According to “Scarface”, this is not the case. MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani interviewed Aldo on Tuesday, and was not expecting the answers he got when questioning Jose on his next fight:

The Brooklyn fight [against Holloway in February] is not happening. I now expect and believe I will be fighting in early March. Either March 3 or March 4, I can’t remember. I believe they will soon announce an interim lightweight title fight with me. They’ve been trying to find me an opponent, and — surprise, surprise — at least one has already turned down the fight against me. I’m waiting to see who they will find.

When asked about who turned the fight down, Aldo said:

They’ve asked me not to say anything. I won’t say who it is because it’s a surprise. A guy we never thought would turn it down turned it down, because his father didn’t think it was good. I’m tired of people turning down fights. I want to put some pressure so they’ll take the fight.

There is only speculation as to who the fighter alleged to have turned down the fight is. One premier lightweight, who has a distinct father/son relationship in MMA, does comes to mind. #1 ranked Khabib Nurmagomedov (24-0-0) surely has done enough to earn a shot at the 155 pound strap, and has been vocal in why he deserves the next shot . Tony Ferguson (23-3-0) is currently ranked #2 in the lightweight division, and would be another potential opponent for the Manaus native (if what he says is true).

2017 promises to be another interesting year for MMA. With so many UFC grudges, twists and subplots expected to unravel, how much interest would McGregor v Aldo 2 generate?

Aldo makes a somewhat surprising revelation regarding his next fight, and plots a rematch with McGregor.

The Brooklyn fight [against Holloway in February] is not happening. I now expect and believe I will be fighting in early March. Either March 3 or March 4, I can’t remember. I believe they will soon announce an interim lightweight title fight with me. They’ve been trying to find me an opponent, and — surprise, surprise — at least one has already turned down the fight against me. I’m waiting to see who they will find.

When asked about who turned the fight down, Aldo said:

They’ve asked me not to say anything. I won’t say who it is because it’s a surprise. A guy we never thought would turn it down turned it down, because his father didn’t think it was good. I’m tired of people turning down fights. I want to put some pressure so they’ll take the fight.

2017 promises to be another interesting year for MMA. With so many UFC grudges, twists and subplots expected to unravel, how much interest would McGregor v Aldo 2 generate?

Max Holloway Points Out Irony In Jose Aldo’s Ducking Accusations

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Since UFC 194, the featherweight division has been a mess. After Conor McGregor took the title from Jose Aldo in 13 seconds last December, the future of the 145-pound category was unclear. When McGregor was booked in to face Rafael dos Anjos and then his replacement Nate Diaz at UFC 196, the situation was further complicated. Compounding this already wild saga was Diaz’s submission victory over ‘The Notorious’ on March 5. Once the rematch and subsequent, albeit narrow, decision win for McGregor was in the books, the brash Irishman headed to lightweight.

Taking out Eddie Alvarez to win a record-breaking second world title, McGregor had now fought three times outside the featherweight division. Jose Aldo had nearly retired over the absence of his Irish foe, and the time came for decisions to be made. Having defeated Frankie Edgar for the interim belt at UFC 200, Aldo was promoted to full champion when McGregor was eventually stripped. Surely things would take a steadier track at 145 pounds now? Well, not really.

Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

Another Interim Title

Just as things seemed to be getting back to a regular rhythm, Max Holloway vs. Anthony Pettis was made for the interim 145-pound belt. Essentially an attempt to boost ratings for the flailing UFC 206 in Toronto, the junior belt was the third to be made in 2016. Reports that UFC 206 only raked in 150K PPV buys prove the interim belt is clearly not worth its weight in gold. Regardless, a unification bout with Aldo was surely next for Holloway. Again, not as simple as we’d imagine.

Aldo recently claimed Holloway has been making a stream of excuses to ‘duck’ a fight with him. Also indicating Khabib Nurmagomedov had turned down an interim lightweight title fight with him, ‘Scarface’ has been uncharacteristically vocal this week. In response to Aldo’s ridicule about injury and avoiding fights, Holloway tells FOX Sports exactly how it is. Needless to say, he’s pretty angry:

Holloway Is Not Impressed

“The next morning (after UFC 206) I woke my (expletive) ankle was swollen as an elephant’s leg. I told the UFC ASAP what was up and I don’t know why they didn’t announce it, but I went to the doctors as soon as possible and I was told I can’t do nothing for four to six weeks,”

“This guy is the last guy who should be talking about injuries. This mother (expletive) is the last guy that should be talking about injuries and being able to fight,” Holloway said. “He wants to talk about he never turned down an opponent in his life and he don’t pick his opponents. I can clearly — he said this, not me — he got offered to fight me. He got offered to fight me at (UFC) 205 and 206 and he would not fight me. He said he would rather fight Anthony Pettis and then he didn’t take that fight either. He’s saying ‘I don’t turn down fights’ — go ask Sean Shelby if Max Holloway ever turned down a fight. I never turned down a fight in my life.”

Pull Outs

“I respect he’s a legend, he’s a legend of the sport but he has seven title defenses and he pulled out of six of them. He’s almost got the same amount of pull outs as he does defenses. You tell me what’s going on. I never pulled out of one fight in my life. I took short notice fights. I’m the most active guy in the division,” Holloway said.

“This guy turns down a fight and he’s blaming his coach? Come on, get out of here. My coach didn’t want me to fight on Feb. 11 but I’m going to do what I’m going to do. I love my coaches but at the end of the day I need to get in there and do the damn thing and they respect that. Feb. 11 I wanted to fight, and then I go to the doctors and I have an injury. It would dumb of me to take a fight with Jose Aldo and I can’t train four to six weeks. This guy is seriously gone in his head. I fought 10 times in the last three years. How many times did he fight? Let’s compare.”

Max Holloway — Credit: Joe Camporeale USA TODAY Sports

“Jose Aldo Is Stupid”

“He’s saying he never turns down a fight, he never chooses his opponents,” Holloway said. “This is his words ‘I would rather fight Anthony Pettis than Max Holloway because Max Holloway is a harder fight and Anthony Pettis is a bigger draw so I’ll just go the easier route’. Those are his own words.

“This guy’s stupid. I can use this guy’s words against him.”

“The thing that blows my mind, Aldo makes guys wait for months. Some guys who are supposed to fight him don’t even get to fight him. Erik Koch was supposed to fight him and Aldo got hurt. This guy makes people wait for months and months and he’s yelling at me? Get out of here. I didn’t even have a contract and you’re getting salty at me? You have contracts and you’re pulling out of them. Pulling out of a fight is just like not taking a fight.”

“He retires and then unretires and now he wants to call the shots? Mother (expletive), your belt was handed to you twice. He can go ahead and wait. I had to fight for mine. Get out of here with your crazy talk. Stay healthy and you’re going to see ‘Blessed’ in the New Year.”

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Jose Aldo: Holloway Is Ducking Me, UFC Offered Me Lightweight Title Fight

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While Conor McGregor still claims that he is a two-weight UFC world champion, the promotion did indeed strip him of his 145-pound title a few weeks back, making Jose Aldo, a man McGregor knocked out in just 13 seconds to steal the title last December, the undisputed champion once again. Since suffering that harrowing loss at UFC 194 in Las Vegas, Aldo has campaigned for a rematch with the “Notorious” one, but at this point, it appears as if McGregor’s days at featherweight are practically over.

The Irishman moving up in weight doesn’t necessarily mean Aldo’s chances of landing a rematch are gone, however, but if they are, he can be at peace at with that as long as his title is around his waist:

Champion

“Yeah, I’d have peace,” Aldo recently told MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani. “No problem. I’m an athlete, so of course, it would be nice to have the rematch, but it’s not something that would take away my peace. I think there’s only one thing that would take away my peace and that’s if I wasn’t the champion. My objective since I started my career was: become the champion, remain the champion, retire the champion.”

Now back at the helm at 145-pounds, Aldo was expected to defend his title next against surging Hawaiian Max Holloway, who recently stopped Anthony Pettis at UFC 206 in Toronto to become the interim champion. Aldo even said after that bout that he and Holloway would be fighting at UFC 208 in Brooklyn, although that doesn’t seem to be the plan anymore.

“Scarface” actually said that he was offered an interim lightweight title bout instead:

Ducking…

“No, the Brooklyn fight is not happening,” he said. “I now expect and believe I will be fighting in early March. Either March 3 or March 4, I can’t remember. I believe they will soon announce an interim lightweight title fight with me. They’ve been trying to find me an opponent, and — surprise, surprise — at least one has already turned down the fight against me. I’m waiting to see who they will find.”

After that fight, Holloway said a bunch of different things. First, I heard he twisted his ankle and wouldn’t have time to heal. Then I heard he had a trip booked to Disney World with his kids and he wouldn’t be able to reschedule. Then I heard his gym is closed during the holidays and he wouldn’t have enough time to train. So he’s basically going around, talking a lot of trash, saying a lot of bullshit and acting like a punk. He just talking shit.

As far as who exactly turned down the bout, Aldo was reluctant to name names:

“You gotta ask the UFC that. They’ve asked me not to say anything. I won’t say who it is because it’s a surprise. A guy we never thought would turn it down turned it down, because his father didn’t think it was good. I’m tired of people turning down fights. I want to put some pressure so they’ll take the fight.”

With McGregor reportedly taking a break after winning the lightweight strap last month, there were rumors of a potential interim title bout being booked between top contenders Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson. Aldo throwing his name into this mix is certainly an intriguing turn of events.

Stay tuned to LowKickMMA as more news unfolds regarding the 155-pound title picture.

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Jose Aldo On Max Holloway: “He’s Saying A Lot Of Bullsh*t And Acting Like A Punk”

While it’s been known that Max Holloway passed on a reported offer to have his “Champion vs. Champion” fight against Jose Aldo at the first-ever UFC event at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on February 11th, what wasn’t known was what Aldo’s …

Aldo, who was promised the next shot at Conor McGregor and the linear 145-pound UFC title with his win over Frankie Edgar at the landmark UFC 200 show in July once again became the “king” of the Featherweight division in the UFC when the promotion decided to make good on their promise to take one of McGregor’s two titles after the UFC 205 PPV at Madison Square Garden in New York City in November.

For his part, Holloway earned the interim UFC Featherweight Championship by defeating former UFC and WEC Lightweight Champion in impressive fashion at UFC 206 earlier this month, however reportedly passed on a quick turnaround at the aforementioned 2/11 date in Brooklyn, citing a number of reasons.

In a new in-depth interview with Ariel Helwani available at MMAFighting.com, the reigning recognized UFC Featherweight Champion Aldo broke his silence on the matter.

“This fight was set,” the Brazilian said of his expected champion vs. champion showdown with Holloway. “We had told the UFC we wanted to fight on that date. For us, it was set.”

Aldo would elaborate and as he has in the past, would go on to break down exactly how things were organized behind-the-scenes only for things to happen completely different than planned.

“The UFC said, OK, and they asked that we not discuss it any further before UFC 206. I was told the winner of the Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis fight would be my opponent in Brooklyn, and my understanding was that both Holloway and Pettis were told the same thing before their fight.”

The former ten year unbeaten Aldo, who was the first-ever champion of the UFC’s 145-pound division and now stands as the division’s only two-time champion in history, went on to break down some of the different reasons why Holloway was unwilling to have the fight on 2/11 in Brooklyn that Aldo claims was already agreed upon.

“After that fight, Holloway said a bunch of different things,” said Aldo. “First, I heard he twisted his ankle and wouldn’t have time to heal. Then I heard he had a trip booked to Disney World with his kids and he wouldn’t be able to reschedule. Then I heard his gym is closed during the holidays and he wouldn’t have enough time to train.”

“So he’s basically going around, talking a lot of trash, saying a lot of bullsh*t and acting like a punk,” Aldo added. “He’s just talking sh*t.”

Jose Aldo: I Don’t Want To Fight Conor McGregor At Featherweight

UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo desperately wants to avenge his UFC 194 loss to lightweight champion Conor McGregor, in which the Irishman handed Aldo his first loss in nearly a decade to take away the Brazilian’s 145-pound title at the time. Since then McGregor has been involved in a massive rivalry with Nate Diaz in the

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Since then McGregor has been involved in a massive rivalry with Nate Diaz in the 170-pound division, and made history against Eddie Alvarez with a second round TKO victory in Madison Square Garden last month to become the promotion’s first dual-weight champion of all time. Aldo has competed only once since the brutal first round knockout loss in December of 2015, winning the interim 145-pound title at UFC 200 against Frankie Edgar.

Now that McGregor has been stripped of his featherweight title, Aldo has been promoted to undisputed champion at 145 pounds, and Max Holloway has secured the interim title, a unification bout between ‘Scarface’ and ‘Blessed’ is what is expected to go down next. While Holloway is most likely the next match-up for Aldo, the Brazilian’s main focus seems to be avenging his loss to McGregor as soon as possible.

During a recent interview with AG.fight, courtesy of Bloody Elbow, Aldo stated that if he does get his shot at redemption against the heavy-handed Irishman, he wants the bout to be in the lightweight division, rather than the 145-pound weight class they competed in for their initial meeting:

“I want to get a fight with Conor, but as he is running from the fight, I want to see how things are going to be in the division,” Aldo said. “But we will fight at lightweight. I don’t want to fight him at featherweight. I’m the champion, and I’ve been beating everyone.

“I want to fight in another division, too, since this is possible now. It is not possible just for one guy. I will ask for a fight, and I will also deny fights if I want to. Since [UFC president Dana White] said that he doesn’t force anybody to fight… This is me right now.”

As far as the current state of the 145-pound division, Aldo is not a fan of the interim titles that have been in circulation throughout the weight class as of late, calling it nothing more than a ploy by the UFC to try and save events:

“This interim belt is bulls**t,” Aldo said. “Even when I won it [in July at UFC 200] I said that. It is just a f****ing excuse that someone created to save events. That is what this belt means. I’m the champion, and I will be waiting to defend my title. If it is not going to be against [Holloway], I could do a superfight or fight in another division.”

For now no official date has been given for a Aldo and Holloway unification bout, but the expected date circling the newswire is the February 11th slot that plays host to UFC 208 in Brooklyn, New York.

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Jose Aldo Reveals Why He’s Reluctant To Get Involved With MMAAA

Just weeks ago the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association (MMAAA) took the mixed martial arts (MMA) world by storm, by announcing their formation which featured some of the biggest names in the sport such as Georges St-Pierre, Cain Velasquez, Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone, Tim Kennedy, and TJ Dillashaw. While the association isn’t the only one out

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While the association isn’t the only one out there fighting for better working conditions for fighters, such as the Mixed Martial Arts Fighters Association (MMAFA) and Professional Fighter’s Association (PFA), UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo has revealed (courtesy of MMA Mania) that he’s actually turned down an offer to affiliate himself with the MMAAA due to his current alliance with the MMAFA:

“(MMAAA) invited me to be a part of this association, but I don’t think everything is clear with this association,” Aldo said. “There are others going on, laws in the American Senate as well, so there’s a lot going on to help fighters. When it’s possible for me to be present and be a part of things that will benefit the athletes, I will always fight for us.”

One reason Aldo was hesitant to join the MMAAA is due to the involvement of former Bellator CEO and President Bjorn Rebney, something that has kept other fighters on their toes regarding the association as well:

“This association was created by a former Bellator president, so I don’t know what’s the real function behind it, if it’s something for the fighters,” he continued. “I’m part of one, too, with Randy Couture, Cung Le, that has an open mind to help fighters, not only the ones in the UFC.”

‘Scarface’ feels that the MMAAA seems a little too focused on only UFC fighters, while other organizations such as the MMAFA are here to help mixed martial artists world-wide:

“Our world isn’t focused only in the UFC,” Aldo said. “We have millions of fighters, trillions of fighters that need help. We won’t fight with a promotion just because we’re exclusive there. I fight for everybody, national and international, no matter where they are. I want to help those athletes. Not only those in the UFC, those that are in the big league and can have a better future, but those in the small promotions and need our help.”

Despite threatening retirement earlier this year, it appears as thought Aldo has settled his differences with the UFC for the time being after being promoted undisputed champion after Conor McGregor vacated the featherweight throne. Now the Brazilian must focus his sights on interim 145-pound champ Max Holloway who he is expected to throw down with in Brooklyn at UFC 208 next year.

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