Conor McGregor: 'I am now the world champion. ... Jose Aldo went running'
Conor McGregor has no doubt.
Three weeks after beating Chad Mendes at UFC 189 and being crowned the interim UFC featherweight titleholder, McGregor opened up about his Mendes beatdown, and, of course, Jose Aldo, in an interview on ESPN's "SportsCenter."
And you can forget about that whole "interim" thing. McGregor said:
I am now the world champion. You claim it’s the interim champion, but Jose (Aldo) went running. Jose's a scared little man who did not show up to fight and sat under his covers praying for Chad Mendes to win. His whole team were praying for Chad Mendes to win so he would not face me. But his prayers went unanswered and I dominated and won. Now I am the featherweight world champion of the UFC. We will schedule a fight against Jose in the future and see how it plays out. Hopefully he stops running and mans up and let’s do this damn fight.
The fight could be held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, with potentially more than 100,000 in attendance.
The McGregor-Mendes fight was one of the UFC's most successful, bringing in more than $7 million at the gate, and reportedly over one million pay-per-view sales. A McGregor-Aldo fight at the home of the Dallas Cowboys could shatter those marks. Get used to it, said McGregor:
The previous fight was the biggest event in UFC history - $7.2-million gate, cleared one million pay-per-view buys, it slots very high on the list of highest MGM (Grand Garden Arena) gates just below Mike Tyson and Juan Manuel Marquez. It also beat that pay-per-view number. So that was a tremendous event and one of the biggest, if not the biggest in history. So it’s only right. We don’t stay the same. We don’t go backwards, we always go forwards. That’s what my business partner Mr. Lorenzo Fertitta always says. We don’t stay in the same spot. You move up levels. So the next level would be a big football stadium, which is in discussions. Dallas Stadium there has been rumors there over the years that the UFC will hold and event there if they can get a fighter of my magnitude, or a fighter of that magnitude that can generate them numbers. It has always been rumors, but now they have me. Now we have the numbers and now is the time to strike on this if they are gonna do it, but if it is there it is there, if it’s in Vegas it’s in Vegas. Make no mistake about it, it will the biggest event in UFC history. As will every single fight that I am involved in from hereon in.
Aldo was forced from the July 11 fight due to an elbow injury, and McGregor criticized Mendes, Aldo's replacement, for fighting for points:
It just reiterates what I know, that there is many, many bums in this business that do not understand the true meaning of fighting. I feel a lot of these people are brought up on sport; sport fighting where to score a point or gain an advantage is a victory. I was brought up where if I do not defend these strikes from these six individuals that are attacking me in this situation, I will not live to see another day. That is my upbringing to their upbringing where they score a takedown and it’s a success.
I felt he entered the contest and all he wanted was to get takedown. For him and for the American fans and his team, they just wanted to see that takedown. That was victory for them. But it is not victory. In a fight to death, a takedown means absolutely nothing. So that is how I approach the game.
The game belongs to McGregor for now.
- With h/t to MMAJunkie