Former UFC featherweight champion Jose will be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. Aldo’s inclusion was announced at UFC 283 in his native Brazil, but there’s one name that will forever be attached to Jose Aldo: Conor McGregor. McGregor ended Aldo’s legendary decade-plus-long undefeated streak in just thirteen seconds to claim the UFC featherweight title, and the fight was preceded by months of back-and-forth between the two. When asked at the UFC 283 post-fight press conference if he’d consider a rematch with McGregor, Aldo revealed that the pair have become friends since, unlikely as it sounds.
“Maybe back in the day it would have been an awesome event, but not today. People, everywhere I go now — I do have a lot of respect for him. We’re friends. We even follow each other on Instagram, we exchange dialogue there, and sometimes fans come up to me and say, ‘Do you feel like beating McGregor or something?’
Aldo: McGregor Left Red Panties On His Door at UFC 200
I say, ‘How can I do that? That’s the guy who gave me the most money. I have nothing but respect and kind of a friendship now, [I wouldn’t think of a rematch] these days.” When asked what he and McGregor talk about, Aldo said “good stuff”.
“It’s usually good stuff. He’s just coming out of a big injury, so we just exchange stuff like that. He has a massive impact on the sport. It’s just usually good stuff that we talk about.”
Aldo also revealed that McGregor pranked him with an infamous “red panty night” gag – a term that McGregor coined – when Aldo bounced back from the defeat with a victory over Frankie Edgar, reclaiming the title in doing so.
“It was just good-hearted, lighthearted fun. We were in Red Rock owned by Lorenzo [Fertitta] in Vegas and we were window to window and there was a night I beat Frankie Edgar, so he just sent it out as a lighthearted joke. I didn’t do anything with it. But maybe. I could even get my missus to wear it or something.”
With Jose Aldo now retired, and McGregor absent from the Octagon for almost two years, it’s unlikely that fans will ever see the rematch. However, Aldo’s return to featherweight championship, and his subsequent run at bantamweight, especially after the historic McGregor defeat, sealed his legacy as one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time.
How do you think a rematch would have gone down? Let us know in the comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTlVhLoNVOc
