Jose Aldo feels he has a better understanding of how the fight business works nowadays.
Aldo is the current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight title holder. He’ll compete in a title unification bout against interim champion Max Holloway at UFC 212. That bout will take place inside the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on June 3.
For quite some time, the 145-pound title holder wasn’t known to be very vocal. It wasn’t until the buildup to his rematch with Chad Mendes back in Oct. 2014 that Aldo started to speak up. His feud with Conor McGregor saw Aldo up the ante when it came to speaking out.
Nowadays, Aldo hasn’t been shy in talking about fighter pay, wanting a boxing match, and his opponents. At a UFC 212 presser, Aldo talked about the need for fighters to have the “gift of gab” (via MMAFighting.com):
“Rankings mean nothing, you have to talk trash. What drives this (sport) today is money, and that’s super normal to me now. I made a lot of money (against McGregor), and I’m thinking about it now. I think about continuing being champion and having my honor and respect, but it’s not worth being the good guy anymore. The thing is to talk trash. Talking makes the fight bigger. … When the fight is over, everyone goes in opposite sides with money in the pocket. You have to talk trash because that brings money.”
