Jose Aldo Will Not Miss UFC 189, Confirms Bone Bruise To Rib

Photo © Buda Mendes/Getty Images.

The historic UFC 189 featherweight title bout will officially go forward. After plenty of reports, it has now been confirmed that Jose Aldo only suffered a bone bruise on his rib cage and he is cleared to fight Conor McGregor on July 11.

Jose Aldo Will Not Miss UFC 189

Previous reports suggested that he suffered a broken rib while sparring with partner Alcides Nunes, who told MMA Mania that he slipped while “mimicking McGregor’s unorthodox style.” Immediately following this report, there were tons of stories stating that Aldo would likely pull out from UFC 189 and he would be replaced by either Chad Mendes or Frankie Edgar.

“[Aldo] cried,” Andre Pederneiras told MMA Fighting. “He wants this fight bad, everybody invested a lot in this. I was with him the whole afternoon. He’s heartbroken. He wants to fight anyway. Now we have to wait for the exam results. Aldo is in deep pain.” If the fracture was confirmed, the next viable option for a return would be October.

Throughout the process, Aldo and his team stated on several occasions that if cleared he will still fight McGregor on July 11. And today UFC released a statement, talking about the doctor’s evaluation.

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“In light of recent reports regarding the status of UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo, UFC has received official medical confirmation from several doctors that Aldo did not suffer a broken rib,” the UFC said in a press release. “Following a review of the scans, it has been determined that the champion suffered a bone bruise to his rib and cartilage injury during training.”

The press release would go on to confirm that Aldo intends to fight Notorious, but the UFC has also set up a contingency plan, making Chad Mendes the backup. This is something that has made number two contender Frankie Edgar very upset.

Still, throughout all of this, McGregor has remained unfazed, yesterday tweeting out everything “is business as usual up here at the top.”

With this said, it appears that his December 2014 prediction, about Aldo pulling out, did not come true: well, at least not yet. “If I’m being honest, I can see a fight between myself and Jose being scheduled for a stadium — either Croke Park or the Aviva Stadium,” McGregor told SportsJoe.ie. “Then I could see Jose pulling, but I could see [Frankie Edgar] stepping in.”