Jon Jones Compares Jose Aldo, Conor McGregor Rematch to Ronda Rousey Situation
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon "Bones" Jones believes Jose Aldo deserves an immediate rematch with Conor McGregor following his loss at UFC 194 on Dec. 12.
Comparing the situation to that of Ronda Rousey, who was promised a rematch following her shock loss against Holly Holm at UFC 193 in November, per the LA Times' Lance Pugmire, Jones doesn't understand why things should be different for Aldo:
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He certainly has a point. UFC seems determined to get Rousey into the Octagon with Holm as quickly as possible for a rematch, to the point where president Dana White openly mocked Holm's manager, Lenny Fresquez, when he suggested the bantamweight champion should defend her title against Miesha Tate first, per Pugmire.
According to Elias Cepeda of FoxSports.com, White's reasoning behind keeping Holm sidelined until a possible rematch certainly applies to Aldo's situation as well:
"After all, Dana White used two things as rationale for wanting to force Holm to sit around and wait to fight Rousey -- one, that it will make a lot of money and two, that Rousey deserves an immediate rematch since she was previously such a dominant champion. Perhaps the latter is a good reason.
If it is, Aldo certainly has earned an immediate rematch as well. After all, he was undefeated for 10 years and a world champion for many more years than Rousey was.
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But there has been remarkably little chatter regarding a possible rematch between Aldo and McGregor. Instead, Notorious' entourage has mainly talked about either a featherweight title defence against Frankie Edgar or a move up to the lightweight division.
His coach, John Kavanagh, never even mentioned Aldo's name when talking to The MMA Hour (h/t MMA Mania's Marc Raimondi): “I do think the next one will be lightweight for the belt. Maybe that's going to be around April. March, April -- something like that. ... Maybe that and then July, UFC 200. Maybe he'll defend the featherweight belt against Frankie on that card.”
Per Raimondi, McGregor has mentioned a rematch as a possibility, but despite the new champion's admission he'd be open to the idea, there's no denying UFC is pushing the narrative of a possible rematch far less then it did when Rousey lost to Holm.
That could be viewed as a little disrespectful to a man who hadn't lost an MMA bout in over a decade coming into UFC 194 and the only featherweight champion UFC had ever known prior to McGregor, per ESPN.com.
There's more. Aldo was rocked by a vicious left hook and knocked out by McGregor just 13 seconds into their bout. It was an impressive punch, but the argument could be made the Brazilian was just surprised and could put up a far better show in a second fight. Jones certainly believes so:
Rousey wasn't surprised by Holm―she was thoroughly dominated during the first round, bleeding heavily by the time she returned to her corner and suffered through even more carnage in the second round until a huge kick to the face ended the fight.
If anything, the former bantamweight champion showed far less to deserve a rematch than Aldo did. The Brazilian never had a chance to prove his worth against McGregor―the punch was just too good and too quick.
After a decade of dominance in the featherweight division, Aldo deserves the chance to prove his loss at UFC 194 was a fluke. It's hard to argue with Jones here.
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