UFC champions trade barbs outside of the cage.
While a potential bout with Anthony Pettis has been put on hold, that has not stopped UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo from calling out the lightweight belt holder.
With Pettis signed to fight Gilbert Melendez later this year, Also tried to goad “Showtime” into a possible unifying title match at featherweight.
“Anthony Pettis talks a lot,” Aldo said.
“He goes to the media and says that he’ll fight me in any division, but then he knows that (UFC President) Dana (White) is not going to have him move down a weight because they want me to give up my belt. Also, I think he’s going to lose to Melendez, so then he’s going to have to move back a little bit, and our time to fight will have gone by.”
Aldo (24-1 MMA, 6-0 UFC) has all but cleared out his division, and with his frame getting bigger the talk of a move to the 155lb division has continued for the past two years.
And at 27 years of age, the Brazilian still has time on his side to try and do what few could imagine and rule at the top of two weight classes in the UFC.
Pettis and Aldo were set to square-off last August, with Pettis dropping to 145lbs for a shot at Aldo’s belt saying he could not due to a knee injury.
However, just four weeks later Pettis had recovered enough to fight Benson Henderson for the lightweight strap and becoming the new champion.
A deal to see the pair square off again surfaced early this year before Pettis opted to sign on as a coach of The Ultimate Fighter opposite Melendez, with Aldo defeating Ricardo Lamas at UFC 169 for his fourth title defence in a row.
Aldo said he was getting tired of a possible “superfight” being mentioned when Pettis’ camp showed no real signs of meeting him half-way on a contract.
“I wasn’t that surprised because the UFC had told me that Pettis would take a while to come back and that with his knee, we didn’t really know when he was going to fight,” Aldo said. “I was prepared for that possibility. Now I’m going to have to weight for ‘TUF’ and see what happens.
“Pettis likes to talk a lot, but he does very little. So for right now, the plan is for me to stay at 145 pounds and defend the belt because obviously Pettis is going to be on ‘TUF.’ He’ll have all that time while he’s shooting the show, and he already has a fight scheduled with Melendez, so we’ll have to wait and see.”
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