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RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - OCTOBER 25: Jose Aldo of Brazil reacts in his featherweight championship bout against Chad Mendes of the United States during the UFC 179 event at Maracanazinho on October 25, 2014 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - OCTOBER 25: Jose Aldo of Brazil reacts in his featherweight championship bout against Chad Mendes of the United States during the UFC 179 event at Maracanazinho on October 25, 2014 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)Buda Mendes/Getty Images

Twitter Reacts to Aldo Pulling Out, McGregor vs. Mendes for Interim Title

Jordy McElroy
Jun 30, 2015

So much for that 100 percent confidence.

Merely hours ago, UFC President Dana Whiteā€™s answer was "yes" when MMAFighting.com'sĀ Ariel Helwani asked if he was 100 percent confident Jose Aldo would defend his featherweight title against Conor McGregor at UFC 189.

Aldo reportedly injured his ribs last week during a sparring session when he was kicked by a teammate. Initial reports from Combate, per MMAFighting.com, revealed that Aldo had fractured his ribs, putting the bout against McGregor in serious doubt.

However, the UFC released an official statement a day later, claiming Aldoā€™s ribs weren't broken. According to the statement, Aldo's official diagnosisā€”following a review of the CT scansā€”was a bone bruise and cartilage injury.

A contingency plan was in place if Aldo was unable to compete on July 11. Chad Mendes was selected as the featherweight to take his place against McGregor in an interim title fight. Despite having a plan B, the UFC seemed confident Aldo would still step up and take the fight.

Speaking with Helwani on Tuesday at the unveiling of the new Reebok uniforms, White was confident fight fans would get the bout they wanted to see:

"

Jose Aldo wants this fight. The injury that he has is the same injury [Donald] "Cowboy"Ā Cerrone just fought with. Cowboy Cerrone just fought with this injury. He got hit to the body, and he won the fight. Dan Henderson fought with this injury, and a lot of other fighters have fought with the same thing that Jose has right now.

"

Even UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta told Helwani he was "very confident" Aldo would fightĀ McGregor.

But the injury was too much for the 28-year-old featherweight champ to overcome. The UFC announced Tuesday that Aldo had officially pulled out of his UFC 189 title fight with McGregor. The Irish challenger will now take on Mendes for the interim featherweight title.

MMA fighters and analysts wasted little time in posting their thoughts of the new UFC 189 main event on Twitter (warning: NSFWĀ language):

JordyĀ McElroyĀ is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He also is the MMA writer forĀ FanRagĀ Sports and co-founder of The MMA Bros.

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