Conor McGregor has called out Jose Aldo to fight in their UFC featherweight title clash on 11 July at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, even if he is carrying an injury.
Aldo suffered a bruised rib in training early this week and has been receiving treatment on the injury ever since, meaning his training has been curtailed in the run-up to the fight.
Chad Mendes has been lined-up as a late replacement for Aldo should be be unavailable to fight, in what would be an interim title fight.
But McGregor has made it very clear he feels Aldo's injury should not keep him out of the title fight, saying: "I hope Jose shows up and fights like a man.
"Just toughen up and show up. Many people have stepped inside the Octagon with little, itty bitty bruises.
"We all have knocks and bruises. Dust it off and step up. Step up and fight like a man. Fight like the champion you should be.
"There's a lot on the line. A lot of money, a lot of pride.
"There should be no reason to pull out of this contest. But if he does, that's on him and I can't force another individual to step in there. If I ask myself truly 'would I like to step in there and face me', I'd probably go running, too.
"If it's little mini Mendes, we'll smoke him, too."
“He’s under treatment. He did an injection and is under a PRP (platelet-rich plasma) treatment, and is waiting to get better" - Andre Pederneiras
Aldo's camp, speaking through head coach Andre “Dede” Pederneiras, have said a final decision on whether Aldo will take part in the title fight will be made next week.
Pederneiras said: “There’s medical report here and an evaluation there. I’m not a doctor to say which one is correct.
“I know he’s injured and this rib injury is painful. He’s using anti-inflammatory and we will wait to see if he gets better. The fight is on, and we’ll check him again next week. We will only have this answer next week.
“He’s under treatment. He did an injection and is under a PRP (platelet-rich plasma) treatment, and is waiting to get better.
"They take his blood, use only the good plasma, and inject it on the injury. The fight is 15 days away. Doctors say he will get better day after day. We can’t say how he will feel 15 days from now.
“If he can’t do any exercise to cut weight, he won’t fight at all. That doesn’t concern me at all.
“He’s forbidden to do anything right now. If you move, the injury won’t heal, so he needs to stay to some rest.
"He’s used to pain but is feeling a lot of pain right now. It’s hard to fight at 100%.
"But if he can take a punch and don’t feel the pain he’s feeling right now. He broke his foot in the first round against ‘Korean Zombie’ and kept fighting. He’s used to pain. We’ll only let him fight if he’s well.
“I think Aldo is so superior it won’t make the difference. If he goes to the fight, he will win.
“I won’t put him in a situation that one punch can end the fight."
Aldo's mentor also revealed that they're still unsure who leaked information of his injury to the media, saying: “We don’t know who leaked this information. We didn’t leak it.
“We took him to the hospital and a lot of people saw him there. I told the matchmaker he was injured and under treatment but it was on the media already. We believe someone in the hospital leaked this information to the media.”
