UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo is defending the gold against UFC Interim Featherweight Champion Max Holloway in a title unification bout at UFC 212.
Despite claims to the contrary, the Brazilian says that it was actually Holloway who was running from him.
“It’s what I always say: Saying that in the media is very easy,” Aldo said to MMA Junkie. “But me, him, all the athletes – we know what we say and what we answer to the UFC. But people don’t say that publicly. People say what’s convenient. So he was selling something that was convenient to him, saying I was running. We’d been trying to fight since December, January, and that didn’t happen. Then March. And he never could. He had to travel and (go to Disneyland), and a bunch of things. It seemed like it was my fault when, bro, this fight’s been done. He was the one who ran from the first and then said he couldn’t fight until the middle of the year. So we’re fighting now. Hopefully nothing bad will happen and we’ll have this fight at UFC Rio.”
In an interesting side note to the title unification fight, the last fighter to defeat either Aldo or Holloway is UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor.
Even though Holloway has fought some tough competition heading into UFC 212, the Brazilian feels the competition wasn’t tough enough.
“I think he hasn’t fought the top guys in the division,” Aldo said. “When you look at it, they weren’t at the top. The top guys he fought were tough fights, which went all three rounds, always split decisions. So it’s not about the streak. It’s about who he fights.”
UFC 212 takes place on Saturday, June 3 from the HSBC Arena in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil with Jose Aldo and Max Holloway headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
