OzExorcist
Broomcorn's uncle
Bronze Level
*shrugs*
Same was true of Jon Jones when he took the belt off Shogun - the closest to fighting a somebody he ever came before that was probably Ryan Bader. Chris Weidman only really had Demian Maia on his resume before he got his shot at Anderson Silva. Most of the guys on TJ Dillashaw's resume before he fought Barao are lucky to even have wikipedia pages.
There's not a lot of point thinking about it too hard, of course, because we all know at the end of the day McGregor fighting Aldo is a business decision. It's the biggest-money fight the UFC could have made in the division... hell, very possibly in the whole organisation. That's why the call it the fight business.
If you still want to give it some kind of sporting legitimacy though, you could consider that Aldo needed to fight someone. Who else would it have been?
Cub Swanson and Frankie Edgar are the only other real possibilities, given that he's now beaten Chad Mendes twice in the past few years. Of course, Aldo already owns wins over Swanson and Edgar as well. Swanson is coming off a loss (to Edgar) so you couldn't really give him the shot. That just leaves a rematch with Edgar and let's face it, does anyone really expect Aldo-Edgar 2 would go any differently to their first fight?
Same was true of Jon Jones when he took the belt off Shogun - the closest to fighting a somebody he ever came before that was probably Ryan Bader. Chris Weidman only really had Demian Maia on his resume before he got his shot at Anderson Silva. Most of the guys on TJ Dillashaw's resume before he fought Barao are lucky to even have wikipedia pages.
There's not a lot of point thinking about it too hard, of course, because we all know at the end of the day McGregor fighting Aldo is a business decision. It's the biggest-money fight the UFC could have made in the division... hell, very possibly in the whole organisation. That's why the call it the fight business.
If you still want to give it some kind of sporting legitimacy though, you could consider that Aldo needed to fight someone. Who else would it have been?
Cub Swanson and Frankie Edgar are the only other real possibilities, given that he's now beaten Chad Mendes twice in the past few years. Of course, Aldo already owns wins over Swanson and Edgar as well. Swanson is coming off a loss (to Edgar) so you couldn't really give him the shot. That just leaves a rematch with Edgar and let's face it, does anyone really expect Aldo-Edgar 2 would go any differently to their first fight?