Jose Aldo says the footage everyone remembers from his UFC 194 locker room has been misread for almost 11 years. In a recent interview with Mundo da Luta, reported by MMA Fighting, the former featherweight champion explained that he broke down after losing his title to Conor McGregor because Dana White told him there would be no rematch.
Aldo said his first thought after the knockout was that a dominant champion would get another crack. “I cried a lot because, in my mind, after I lost, I thought, ‘Fuck, there’s going to be a rematch because I was a dominant champion,’” he said. “Up until that point, I was the first and only featherweight champion in history.”
Then White came into the room. According to Aldo, the UFC president told him McGregor could no longer make 145 pounds and would be heading to lightweight, and that UFC 194 was McGregor’s last featherweight cut regardless of the result. “Everyone thinks I was crying because I lost. No, I was crying because I knew we weren’t going to fight again,” Aldo said. “There was no way for me to get that win back, you know?”
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How it played out
The fight itself lasted 13 seconds on Dec. 12, 2015, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The UFC later released the locker room video of Aldo in tears with his team, which is the clip he was asked about.
White’s prediction held. McGregor never returned to featherweight after winning the lightweight title, and Aldo spent years publicly asking for the rematch anyway. In the meantime he won the 145-pound belt back with McGregor gone, then dropped to bantamweight for another title run on his way to the UFC Hall of Fame.
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The two have since warmed up to each other. Aldo told MMA Fighting in September that McGregor should go back to lightweight after fighting at welterweight, a stretch that includes his recent injury loss to Max Holloway. Aldo called the injury sad, said a McGregor vs. Holloway fight could have been great, and said he hopes McGregor recovers and returns. He also questioned whether McGregor can come back at a high level after so much time away, noting that the layoff is now getting longer.
Quick take
This lands differently once you hear it. A 13-second fight answers almost nothing about how two elite featherweights match up over five rounds, and Aldo knew that in the locker room before his hands were even unwrapped. He also knew a man who calls the cut to 145 too hard isn’t coming back to it. I have zero patience for fighters who wreck themselves on the scale, but McGregor making that call and moving up was honest, and it froze one of the strangest results in the division’s history in place for good. Aldo got his belt back without ever getting his answer, and that’s the part he’s still carrying.
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