UFC Featherweight Champ Jose Aldo Slams Conor McGregor: ‘He Was Never the Champion’

Jose Aldo is the undisputed UFC featherweight champion after the belt was forfeited by Conor McGregor over the weekend. But if you ask the Brazilian fighter, the title should have been his the entire time. 

“To me, I never stopped being champion,” Aldo said. “I lost that fight because of an accident. I knew that I would win a rematch, that I would be champion again.

That fight Aldo’s talking about, McGregor’s 13-second knockout victory at UFC 194, was nothing more than a fluke, he believes, and Aldo would love nothing more than to prove that. The problem, of course, is that McGregor has bulked up and moved to the lightweight division, where he holds the belt for fighters at 155-pounds.

Aldo, who had talked about possibly retiring earlier this fall, had some other choice words for McGregor, but also hinted that he’d be willing to move up to the Irishman’s weight class if that’s what it took for a chance at redemption. “Just like Dana [White] said, we can choose who we want to fight, so I want to fight him. That’s what will happen.”