UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo is preparing to fight UFC Interim Featherweight Champion Max Holloway at UFC 212.
UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor may be boxing Floyd Mayweather Jr. down the line. McGregor's longtime foe Aldo doesn’t think the fight will actually take place.
"We have a contract with the UFC, every athlete does, and everything has to go through the UFC,” Aldo said at a UFC 212 media scrum. "It’s hard for Mayweather to accept a fight with [McGregor] being a UFC fighter. He does boxing events, so it’s 80 percent for him and 20 percent for the rest. It’s the opposite in the UFC. The UFC makes 80 and athletes make 20. That’s what happens. That's the real story. So it’s not about Conor signing the contract or not, it’s Mayweather accepting to make less, or make his event.”
McGregor and Aldo have collided before, with McGregor defeating him to win the UFC Featherweight Title at UFC 194. A rematch between the two has been rumored for a while now, but the featherweight champion doesn’t think it will ever come to fruition.
"Never, never,” Aldo said. "I think it was close once. Today, with this fight between the UFC and him, from both sides. The UFC has tried to do this fight, and he didn’t want it. He’s running. He won't accept it. But we’ll see. I don’t know if this fight happens. Like I said, many people talk. But talking in the media is easy. I can come here and say I’m going to fight the boxing world champion, the kickboxing champion. Cool, you will all post this, you’ll be all over the news, create some talk. It might become true, but it never stops being a lie.”
UFC 212 takes place on Saturday, June 3 from the HSBC Arena in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil with Jose Aldo and Max Holloway headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
