Lyoto Machida doesn’t think Conor McGregor has a chance against featherweight champion Jose Aldo.
“If you’re going to compare him to Jose Aldo, Aldo is technically better,” Machida told MMAFighting.com. “(McGregor) is a tough fighter, he’s coming out strong, but you can’t say he beats Aldo. Aldo is too dominant.”
While Machida and McGregor compete in differing weight divisions in the UFC, Machida has clearly taken notice of the Irish trash talker and while he doesn’t think he can take the belt from Aldo, Machida does respect what McGregor has done to get himself noticed.
“He can promote himself the way he wants. I don’t see (McGregor) as a bad person,” Machida said. “He’s right, he’s promoting himself this way, and we have to respect him.”
Coming off a unanimous decision loss to middleweight champion Chris Weidman in July, Machida takes on C.B. Dollaway on Dec. 20, but says he won’t resort to McGregor’s technique of trash-talking to push himself to a title shot faster.
“It’s not my style to talk trash to my opponents,” Machida said. “I have techniques to get (to a title fight) in a way that I think it’s the right way. If you win fights convincingly, it makes it easier.”
