Jose Aldo denies that there was any moral victory for Conor McGregor against Floyd Mayweather

Last weekend, Conor McGregor came up short in his anticipated boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. Yet given that McGregor lasted 10 rounds when he was expected to be dominated by the boxing great, many fans and pundits felt he’d at least earned a moral victory in his boxing debut. According to Jose Aldo, one of McGregor’s fiercest rivals in the MMA sphere, however, there was no such victory.

“A lot of people talk a lot of crap, like, ‘Oh, he landed many more blows than (Manny) Pacquiao or (Miguel) Cotto and everyone.’ But no one says that (Mayweather) didn’t fight for two years,” Jose Aldo told Fernanda Prates of MMAFighting.com. “He didn’t even prepare for the fight. He knew, like everyone at the gym said, that it would be very hard (for McGregor to win) – very, very hard.”

Aldo then clarified his belief that there was no moral victory for McGregor.

“Of course not,” he said. “Moral? First of all, you try to prove that with someone who’s almost 41, who’s been away (from the sport). Of course, it was a money fight. A moral victory would have been taking on an active boxer, a champion, and then fought him. And then you’d see how he would barely last a round. Because it’s an entirely different sport. We need to put ourselves in our places.

“I’m an MMA athlete. I can’t go tomorrow and say I’m going to do muay Thai in Thailand with a Thai fighter, because I can punch and kick well. There’s no way. Each one in their places. I respect martial arts, so I put myself in my place. I don’t see a moral victory.”

What do you think of Jose Aldo’s assessment of Conor McGregor’s fight with Floyd Mayweather? Is it fair, or is it perhaps skewed by his dislike for the Irishman? Join the conversation in the comment section!

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 9/3/2017.