It’s all good, Jose Aldo can fight. At least, that’s what everyone is hoping for right now. The message, that the champion’s rib is not fractured, as originally believed, but “only” bruised, took a big load off of many fan’s minds, as well as of the UFC’s. When news surfaced yesterday, McGregor was quick to comment on it with a rather polarizing Tweet. Now he poured some more oil into the fire during a video interview with MMA Junkie.
“It turns out it’s just a bruised rib,” McGregor said. “Little bit of ice, little bit of ibuprofen, little bit of ‘toughen the f-ck up,’ and we should get on with the fight.”
The big questions now is, if the fight is really on and the champion gets cleared by the commission, how will a handicapped Aldo do against a healthy McGregor? Many feel the Irishman targeting Aldo’s hurting rib area could be a substantial disadvantage for the Brazilian pound-for-pound king.
“I’m going to go for the chin; I want to knock him out,” McGregor stilled everyone’s fears. “He doesn’t need to worry about his ribs, and I’m not going to go out and purposely target an area. If he shows up and fights, which he should do, we’ll fight as scheduled. […] I’m not going to start diving at things. I’m just going to fight my fight. It’s the chin I am hunting.”
Still in the running as a possible replacement for Aldo, should the Nevada Athletic Commission decide he can’t fight, is standby opponent Chad Mendes. He’s a completely different style match-up than Aldo and the first top-class wrestler McGregor will face in the UFC. With only a few days left to prepare, accepting a fight with Mendes sounds like a tough challenge. Not for the confident Irishman, though. He says he will compete at UFC 189, no matter against whom and no matter in which weight class.
“As long as I am fit and I am healthy, I feel it’s only right that I show up and fight, so 155 was an option because the Aldo fight was looking to be rescheduled until September. But now, now I don’t know. I don’t give a f-ck really. I don’t care. I’ll be there July 10 at 145 pounds, and on July 11, I will have a gold belt wrapped around my waist. So everything else means nothing to me”, he said.
McGregor doesn’t care if he fights Aldo or Mendes, he just wants that UFC title. “I’ll whip both of them on the same night if need be. So whoever shows up across the octagon will get beat.”