It looks like Tuesday we will get our answer as to whether or not Jose Aldo will compete as scheduled against Conor McGregor at UFC 189.
According to Aldo’s training partner Jonas Bilharinho, who was brought in specifically to mimic McGregor’s fighting style, Aldo is scheduled to train for the first time since suffering his reported rib injury this coming Tuesday. After training, Aldo will apparently make the decision.
“I think he will probably fight. And I hope so,” said Bilharinho on “The MMA Hour” atMMAFighting.com on Monday. “I will be with him on Tuesday to see what he’s capable of doing during training or not, but my opinion right now is that he’s going to fight. I’m going to be optimistic about it because Aldo wants this fight so bad. I think this fight will probably happen.”
Bilharinho last saw Aldo on Thursday and noted that the champ couldn’t even walk normally due to his rib injury.
“He was walking slowly to not feel the pain on the ribs,” he said. “It’s disturbing. You can’t punch, you can’t move, you can’t breathe, but the pain was still fresh. I don’t know right now. It’s probably better. If the pain got worse, he will probably don’t fight. But I think the fight is going to happen. I don’t think it will get any worse.
“It’s a little bit painful but there are some kinds of pain that we can hold during fights and there are some kinds of pain that we can’t hold. I hope that it’s one of the ones that we can hold. We will test him on Tuesday. Tuesday is the big day.”
Although Aldo won’t be 100-percent if and when he steps into the Octagon on July 11, Bilharinho is confident his teammate will get the job done.
“He’s very strong mentally. Once he decides to fight, the pain won’t be a problem,” he said. “I know he can beat Conor. He totally can beat Conor.
“Conor never fought someone like Aldo. Conor keeps saying ‘oh, he never fought someone like me’. Okay, but neither did him fight someone like Aldo. And he’s way more different than people who Conor fought. Aldo is so much better. I really want to see this fight. If he thinks he can fight, he should fight.”
LINK to full story: Jose Aldo To Make Decision On If He Can Fight At UFC 189 On Tuesday
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