Jose Aldo wasted little time Saturday on calling out Conor McGregor after the Irishman lost to Nate Diaz at UFC 196, but McGregor wasn’t having it at the post-fight press conference.
“He had an opportunity to show up here, and he didn’t,” McGregor said of Aldo (transcribed via BloodyElbow.com). “He could be sitting where Nate is sitting right now. He was the first choice. He said ‘any time, any place, anywhere.’ And then, it wasn’t ‘any time, any place, anywhere.’
“Now, another man gets a victory over me, he celebrates it. That’s the sign of a loser. That’s the sign of a runner-up. That’s not the sign of a champion.”
Penick’s Analysis: The Aldo fight is one that should certainly happen again given Aldo’s unbeaten decade-long run prior to UFC 194, but fueling the flame of a down but not out McGregor could push the Irishman to give Edgar the opportunity instead. It may be another situation where he gets to make the call despite the loss to Diaz, but it’s really a matter of what the UFC sees as the bigger Featherweight Championship fight for UFC 200. It’d be a shame for Edgar to lose out on that title fight again, but it’s just as sensible for Aldo to be in that spot. Now that the lightweight and welterweight scenarios have been taken out of the mix, we’re back to the original conundrum over which of those two should get first crack, and there’s not really a wrong answer at this point.
[Photo (c) Gary A. Vasquez via USA Today Sports]
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