Jose Aldo has been on the receiving end of a ton of criticism for not fighting at UFC 189 with bruised ribs, which he initially believed were broken. His scheduled opponent Conor McGregor, who ended up defeating Chad Mendes for the interim UFC featherweight title, mocked him, UFC president Dana White expressed disappointment he didn't fight through it, and commentator Chael Sonnen questioned the injury's validity.
Aldo has reportedly responded by threatening lawsuits against the UFC and Sonnen for their comments.
"I get a phone call. So I answer it on the car speaker. It's a lawyer from Brazil threatening to sue me for defamation. Her client? Jose Aldo. They said, 'we won't sue you if you stop talking about it.' I said, 'Hold on, I'll go a step further than that, if I said it and it's not true, I'll give them an apology.'" Sonnen said.
White, in an interview alongside McGregor before the fight happened, had this to say.
"Whenever Jose Aldo is ready we can make the fight to unify [the belts]. It was his decision [to pull out of the fight]. We don't feel great about it - we spent a lot of money promoting that fight, a lot of people were anticipating that fight. It's definitely disappointing."
Aldo had responded with a lengthy statement in which he included an image of his X-ray showing a broken rib. He also called the interim title a "toy belt," and criticized the UFC for holding a bout with an interim title on the line.
"I'm the UFC champion since April 2011, defended my belt seven times in four years, and will do it for the eighth time in 2015, an average of twice a year. And I'm not even mentioning WEC, a Zuffa-owned company, like the UFC, where I became the champion in 2009 and put my belt on the line twice in less than a year. That why I can't agree with UFC's decision to have an interim champion in my division citing the five opportunities that I couldn't defend my belt," Aldo said.
Aldo is expected to be ready to return to the octagon by October, but if he moves forward with these lawsuits, there's no word yet on how that could affect his future.
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