Jose Aldo, the UFC Featherweight Champion, declared his interest in a second fight against UFC Lightweight Champion, Conor Mcgregor - but this time at lightweight. Aldo's next fight will likely be his first defence of his interim championship at UFC 208 against Max Holloway.
Last year, at UFC 194 in Las Vegas, Jose Aldo was knocked out in thirteen seconds by one devastating McGregor blow. Since then, Aldo has been pushing for a rematch, but Conor McGregor has been refusing to engage with Aldo.
In an interview with AG.fight, Aldo stated: "I want to fight with Conor again, but he is running from the fight.
I want to see how things are going to be in the division. But we will fight at lightweight, if he answers my challenge. I don't want to fight him at featherweight. I'm the champion and I've been beaten everyone. I want to fight in another division, too, since this is possible now. I will ask for the fight and I will also deny fights if I want to. Since Dana White said that he doesn't force people to fight, this is me now". Previously, Jose Aldo threatened to leave UFC if he wasn't awarded a rematch against Conor McGregor. Although Dana White has publicly said that he is keen for the rematch, there are a lot of factors at play that may well prevent a rematch between Aldo and McGregor.
Despite publicly rejecting the idea of a rematch, Conor McGregor watched Jose Aldo defeat Frankie Edgar from ringside at UFC 200.The Irishman was pictured gazing intently at long time rival Aldo.
Instead of granting Aldo the rematch, McGregor moved up weight classes with back to back fights against Nate Diaz before winning the Lightweight Championship from Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in New York.
However, McGregor has recently stated that he wishes to take a break from UFC-a couple of weeks ago, he announced that he would be appearing in HBO's Game of Thrones.
Further, rumours of a fight against Floyd Mayweather persist. At this stage, it appears that McGregor won't be fighting again until November 2017. Moreover, while accepting the Irish Sportsman of the year award, McGregor revealed that WWE have been in regular contact with him in regards to a potential WrestleMania appearance.
WWE Executive of Talent Paul Levesque, better known as Triple H, has made it clear WWE would like to bring McGregor in for a special appearance.
Although Aldo is rumoured to be facing UFC Interim Featherweight Champion Max Holloway at UFC 208, Aldo has expressed a reluctance to fight for the belt. "The interim belt is bullshit". UFC 208 is scheduled to take place at the Barclays Centre, Brooklyn, on the 11th of February.