“I’m Embarrassed”: Jose Aldo Reveals That Loss to Volkanovski Bothers Him More Than Loss to Conor McGregor

There are very few champions who have dominated the sport as long as the Jose Aldo has. From WEC to UFC, Aldo’s journey has been spectacular, to say the least. He went on an undefeated streak for almost a decade until he met his kryptonite, Conor McGregor.

In a historic title fight, Jose Aldo defended his featherweight title against the interim champion, Conor McGregor. The Irish fighter effortlessly flatlined Aldo in 13 seconds. Though Aldo bounced back with a win over Frankie Edgar, the aura of invincibility was gone after the loss to McGregor. Aldo lost to the champion, Max Holloway twice before reinventing himself. Aldo would get back on winning streak by knocking out Jeremy Stephens and Renato Carneiro. However, that streak was short-lived as he lost to Alexander Volkanovski in his last fight.

While both the losses were devastating for the former featherweight champion, there is a key difference between them. The McGregor fight ended in a flash. McGregor landed arguably one of the best counters of this sport and got the win. However, Volkanovski and Aldo fought for three hard rounds. Vokanovski neutralized Aldo’s game, winning the fight via unanimous decision. 

On an interview with MMA Fighting, Aldo compared his loss to Volkanovski and McGregor:

“It hurts a lot more, for sure. Conor and I, we fought and he landed a good punch. In Rio, it was about performance. That’s what bothers me. I couldn’t do anything. I didn’t try anything. If you lose but try something, okay. You get sad for the loss, but you tried, you fought. But that one, I’m embarrassed. I can’t watch that fight.”

After a few unfavorable outcomes in the featherweight division, Aldo is moving down to bantamweight to try. He faces the former no 1 title contender of the division, Marlon Moraes at UFC 245. Moving down to bantamweight was a tough decision at this stage of his career. After all, he had trouble making weight for the featherweight fights. However, it does make sense as he is not going to get to the top of the featherweight division anytime soon. It would be intriguing to see how does Aldo deals with the early furry of Moraes.