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Jose Aldo mocks Conor McGregor while criticizing UFC 189 interim title fight

Jose Aldo's injured rib has been a hot topic in the MMA world ever since the champion was forced to pull out of his UFC 189 main event title defense against Conor McGregor earlier this week.

The July 11 bout was supposed to headline the company's International Fight Week festivities and many thought that "Scarface" would be able to tough his injury out and make it to the cage.

Despite initial reports coming out of Brazil that Aldo had, in fact, broken his rib, UFC president Dana White initially insisted that everyone "relax" on Twitter.

White even mentioned that plenty of other fighters had fought through the "exact" same injury – Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone most recently being one – and Aldo-McGregor would most assuredly continue as planned.

To go along with White's decree, the UFC released a statement via their website saying that they had received reports from "several doctors" that Aldo had suffered a bruise, not a break, as was first reported.

"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. 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. With this news, Aldo has expressed that he has every intention of facing Conor McGregor at UFC 189."

(Jose Aldo rib X-ray. Credit: Jose Aldo camp)
(Jose Aldo rib X-ray. Credit: Jose Aldo camp)

When Aldo pulled out of the fight, he took heat from critics who questioned the severity of his injury. After all, this was the fifth time Aldo has pulled out of a UFC title fight and he has been one of the more outspoken UFC champions on the issues of fighter pay and the new UFC Reebok apparel deal.

With all the money the promotion pumped into UFC 189 and Aldo's history of discontent, aimless speculation had the Brazilian labeled as a saboteur.

Well, apparently, Aldo was listening – and understandably quite irritated from the speculation – and today his X-rays were released to Brazilian news outlet Combate.

It looks pretty clear from those X-rays that Aldo broke his rib. The champ also released a statement to accompany the photo. In it, Aldo has some sharp words for McGregor and his new opponent Chad Mendes, who will be competing for an interim title in his absence.

"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.

"If those fights had occurred, I would have done 12 title fights in four years in the UFC, an average of three fights a year, something that no other UFC champion did. A UFC champion rarely does three title defenses in one year. So that can’t be the main reason why they are creating an interim title, but the UFC is a private company which I work for, so I can’t complain about its decision, but I can’t say I agree either.

"...If he beats Chad Mendes, the only thing he will have is a toy belt to show his drunk friends in his country’s bars, because that’s what an interim belt represents to me: a toy. I am the champion."

See Aldo's full statement here, translation courtesy of MMAFighting.

What do you say, readers? Does the UFC owe Aldo an apology, or is this just an everyday medical mix-up?