ESPN analyst and former UFC middleweight Chael Sonnen made a bold prediction in an interview with MMAFighting.com. Sonnen believes Jose Aldo will not make weight for his fight against Conor McGregor at UFC 194 on Saturday. Weigh-ins are on Friday.
Sonnen thinks Aldo is looking for a way out of his fight against McGregor, and not making weight is his only way out right now. Here’s what he had to say:
“I’m not positive Jose Aldo is going make weight for this fight,” Sonnen told MMAFighting.com. “If he can find a way out of this fight right now, he will take it. The problem is, he’s here, and he’s healthy. His last chance to get out of this, or at least have his title on the line, or at least have the full fiver, is to not make weight.”
Sonnen advised fans to wait until after the weigh-ins to buy the pay-per-view, bringing up the fight that Aldo pulled out of their previous fight.
“So until I see him on the scale, I’m not going to buy it. He’s clearly scared of Conor. He’s already pulled out of this fight once.”
“One of the reasons you get into the UFC, is you want people watching,” he said. “When you have an athlete, who does everything he can to make sure people don’t tune in… You have an athlete, who does everything he can to make sure people don’t know when, where, how to get tickets, where the PPV is… That’s not a great sign.”
“If you are going to whip my ass, you’re going to want people to watch… Jose Aldo will do everything he can to make sure nobody is on the TV on Saturday night, and I haven’t seen anything like it.”
UFC 194 goes down on Saturday, December 12th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, airing on pay-per-view, FOX Sports 1, and UFC Fight Pass.
Related: Chael Sonnen Explains How He Knows Aldo & McGregor Are “So Scared” Heading Into UFC 194