White defines stakes in McGregor vs. Siver
“Denis Siver knows exactly what happens if he comes in and beats Conor McGregor. It’s a huge win for him; you know he’s going to take the fight serious.”
UFC featherweight Conor McGregor stirred ish up in Brazil, with fans calling for his blood, and “Notorious” saying “u vai morrer (you’re going to die) to Jose Aldo. For his part Aldo declared “my court is full now. I am the king, Chad is the prince, and there is a joker now.”
Though Aldo wouldn’t say his name, McGregor appears to be the next contender for Aldo’s belt, if the Irishman can beat Denis Siver at UFC Fight Night 59 on Jan 18 in Boston.
A lot of people are dismissing Siver and saying this fight is ridiculous, said White at the post-UFC 179 press conference as transcribed by MMAJunkie. Siver knows exactly what happens if he comes in and beats Conor McGregor. It’s a huge win for him; you know he’s going to take the fight serious and he’s going to come in to try and win, so there’s no sense in really even talking about the Aldo fight.
But if (McGregor) should win, we would definitely be interested in making that (title) fight. But this has to happen first. Let the Siver fight happen first, and we’ll see how everything else plays out.
“Jose Aldo just finished this fight. (McGregor will) probably fight in January in Boston. Then we can probably have a fight between those guys in the summer, if everything goes right.
“(Aldo) looked a little banged up tonight. He usually takes a little time off after his title fights anyway.”
“First you have to go in and beat Dennis Siver. You don’t ever want to jump ahead of fights. He has a fight with Dennis Siver. If he wins that fight, we’ll figure out the how, who, when, and where.”
Aldo indicated he was game to fight McGregor, and was game to continue the trash talk.
He’s a guy that just talks, said Aldo. He hasn’t fought anyone; he hasn’t fought anyone as tough as us. So to get here right now and talk, I’ve heard that a lot. Chael Sonnen did that in his weight class, and now he’s lost. He can talk as much as he wants. We’re grounded; we have our feet on the ground. Chad and I know what the weight class is like. We’re athletes and we have to respect each other. We know that in there, we make it happen. And that’s what I wanted to say.
If it’s Conor, we’re going to do a great promotion and a great fight.”
So what do you think UG? Is Siver too much of a step down? Is Aldo too much of a step up? Or with a win over Siver, are things just right?