Conor McGregor Reacts to Jose Aldo Retiring After UFC 315

Conor McGregor was impressed by Jose Aldo’s performance in his retirement fight. 

Aldo faced Aiemann Zahabi at UFC 315 on Saturday at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The former featherweight champ put on a spectacular performance, hurting Zahabi with his signature leg kicks and even dropping him. However, Zahabi went on to earn a controversial unanimous decision win in front of his home crowd. Aldo subsequently hung up his gloves inside the Octagon, marking the end of a legendary career. 

#UFC315 Official Scorecard: Jose Aldo vs Aiemann Zahabi (@Aiemannzahabi)

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— UFC News (@UFCNews) May 11, 2025

Former foe Conor McGregor took to Instagram to react to Aldo’s retirement. McGregor re-shared a post hailing “Junior” as the greatest featherweight of all time. The Irishman wrote with a “wide eyed” emoji: “Jose Aldo last night”

McGregor’s iconic rivalry with Aldo played a major role in shooting him to stardom overnight. Then interim champ McGregor faced the reigning champ Aldo in a featherweight title unifier at UFC 194 in 2015. McGregor delivered some of the greatest trash talk in the history of the sport in the lead-up to the bout, visibly affecting Aldo mentally. McGregor even said that he could feel Aldo’s right hand twitching to hit him and that he wouldn’t be there when the Brazilian came at him. And word for word, McGregor dodged a lunging right from Aldo and sent him to sleep with a left hook within 13 seconds. 

McGregor and Aldo’s careers have gone on completely different trajectories since. While McGregor shot to fame overnight and went on to become the lightweight champ, Aldo went back and forth before dropping to bantamweight in 2019. Aldo only fought top tier competition at 135 pounds, going 4-4 — Saturday’s bout was at featherweight — before calling it a career. 

Aldo and McGregor have settled their differences over time and often expressed goodwill for each other in recent years.