Jose Aldo rips “lucky” Conor McGregor

At UFC 194, Conor McGregor shocked the world as he knocked out Jose Aldo in just 13 seconds to capture the UFC featherweight championship. In his next fight, McGregor was submitted by Nate Diaz in a welterweight scrap at UFC 196. Now, McGregor will get the chance to avenge his loss to Diaz at UFC 200, while Aldo fights Frankie Edgar for the interim featherweight championship.

Aldo, who reigned as the UFC featherweight champion for nearly 5 years, spoke to ESPN to discuss why he feels McGregor’s knockout in their first fight was “lucky”, and why he is confident that he will get to avenge the loss in the future.

“Obviously, there was luck involved,” Aldo told ESPN.com, through an interpreter. “He was lucky to get that shot in right away. If my punch would have landed a little lower, then he would have been the one on the mat. So, there was definitely luck involved.”

He continued:

“Conor is going to have to come back [to the division] to fight me. I expect that. Everybody expects that.”

“Like I’ve been saying, by the end of the year, the belt will be mine again and he’ll go back to being what he was — which is nothing.”