Negotiations are underway for Conor McGregor to boxing Floyd Mayweather for a reported 60 to 70 million dollars. That sounds pretty good to every fighter in mixed martial arts, and there have been a number of call outs. Jimi Manuwa wants to fight David Haye, Stipe Miocic wants to fight Anthony Joshua, and Cub Swanson wants to fight Paulie Malignaggi, among others.
The latest fighter to express interest is UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo, during a recent media call. With characteristic grace, Aldo said he wanted to start small and go through channels.
That’s always been a personal wish of mine and it’s something that I like to think of a little bit down the road, said Aldo via a translator, as transcribed by Tristen Critchfield for Sherdog. I don’t have any specific one fight that I’d like to have. I’d like to start a career in fighting smaller shows and see where that takes me.
However, Aldo has far more immediate plans – he fights Max Holloway in the main event of UFC 212 on Saturday night.
Holloway, he’s a guy that I’ve been looking for, for a while and I knew that we’d end up facing each other,” said Aldo. “He’s a tough guy. And in my MMA career, I’m happy to go to the gym every day. This is what I chose to do with my life. I’m happy to be able to do this, and I know there’s plenty of people out there who would love to be doing it and can’t. Boxing is something that I love to do. It’s a wish of mine that I’ve had to not just put on big fights, but put on a career in boxing.
But that’s something I’m going to have to discuss with UFC and see what’s the best way of doing that down the line. But right now, I’d like to defend my belt and that’s what I’m going to continue to do.
Right now I have to get through this title fight and once I get through that, I can start thinking of some of the other things I would like to do. I think there may be a lot of challenges in other divisions or with other guys that I haven’t fought before. So, I think there’s plenty left for me to challenge myself. And in my personal life, I have my own things as well, but that’s between me and my family.
Aldo also has the one that got away – a rematch with Conor McGregor, the sole loss of his UFC career. The likelihood of that happening is remote.
I try to see the good in it, the silver lining and everything but, the UFC tried to make this fight happen again, and it didn’t,” he said. “The guy does not want to fight with me again. It may be the last time that people ask. He doesn’t want to have anything to do with me anymore and that’s fine. It happened. It’s in the past.
