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Conor McGregor slapped Jose Aldo before Canadian TV interview

By Mike Dyce

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Contender Conor McGregor smacked UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo right before a television interview in Canada.

The UFC has been spending money by the truck full to promote UFC 189 between Conor McGregor and featherweight champion Jose Aldo. The two kicked off the tour in Rio de Janeiro and have traveled all over the United States and now Canada promoting the July bout.

It has been tense every step of the way, but equally as entertaining for MMA fans. The “Embedded” series on the UFC’s YouTube channel has been fantastic to watch.

Apparently right before McGregor and Aldo were set to appear on a Canadian television show, along side UFC president Dana White mind you, McGregor slapped Aldo.

“It got to a boiling point today,” White told The Canadian Press, via Yahoo.

White warned producers about keeping the two separated, and those words were ignored when the producers sat McGregor behind Aldo.

“And Conor slaps Jose Aldo on the back,” said White. “We’re about to go live and all hell almost broke loose.”

When the interview did air, McGregor was seated on a couch with White between him and Aldo, and UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler was directly behind Aldo. The producer probably wanted Lawler on the couch so the two champions were visible with their belts, but the little episode forced Lawler to the background.

But that explains the weird mood that was visible on the set and noticed by viewers at home.

I mean, just look at Aldo’s face.

Even McGregor was unlike himself in the morning, not really as talkative as he was.

At one point the co-hosts of the show joke about how serious everyone was and were happy when they got a half-hearted smirk out of McGregor.

While we now seemingly understand the somber attitude on the set from the fighters, it brings up another interesting wrinkle.

In the most recent episode of that fabulous “Embedded” series, which hit YouTube literally hours before that television appearance in Canada, they show a phone call between Aldo and his manager during the Boston and New York City legs of the tour. Aldo’s manager is talking to him about the potential of McGregor touching him, and Aldo dismisses it saying it is all show. Up to that point it has just been some tense stare downs with White holding the fighters back trying to prevent another Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier situation.

Aldo’s manager said in reference to a stare down, which they show in the episode before this scene: “They said he tried to touch you this time… I texted Dana saying that if he ever touched you, he would see what was gonna happen. Because once you start, Dana can go between you, he can bring Lorenzo, no one’s gonna be able to stop you.”

It is possible that McGregor saw this and decided to touch Aldo intentionally just to find out what was going to happen.

If you missed this television appearance in Canada, you can watch it below and get a feel for the tension in the segment.

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