Conor McGregor and Jose Aldo have shown rare respect for each other with Aldo 'rooting' for the Irishman after their bitter feud six- years ago.
The pair met in an astonishing bout back in 2015 at UFC 194 where McGregor recorded a historic opening round stoppage victory over the Brazilian with a left-hook that knocked his opponent 'unconscious' after just 13 seconds at the MGM in Las Vegas.
A furious build-up led into the fight with McGregor famously stealing the champion's belt from the table at a press conference ahead of their originally scheduled bout at UFC 189 before Aldo was forced to withdraw due to injury.
McGregor also rocked up at Jose Aldo's prior fight encouraging a tense face-off afterwards, and receiving a hostile reception from Aldo's fans at his contest with Chad Mendes at UFC 179.
But Aldo has now appeared to show his former bitter rival respect after admitting he is 'rooting' for McGregor to make a full comeback from injury, but has ruled out the pair ever meeting in a rematch.
“No, I don’t see myself fighting Conor,” Aldo said in a recent interview with MMA Fighting.
“That’s not the path. I root for him today, I hope he recovers from the injury and fights again at the highest level, and becomes champion again because that way he and I will always be together.
"No matter if I’m down and he’s up or the other way around, people will always put our names together, and that way we carry each other up.”
His old foe McGregor also appeared to send a token of 'respect' the other way as he launched an assault on his former opponent Khabib Nurmagomedov claiming that Aldo is 'ten times the fighter' than the undefeated Russian.
This guy is still talking? Another press conference? You s*** your pants of Cerrone your whole career," McGregor posted on Twitter.
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"You pulled 3 times from him. Your father, god rest his soul, could not believe his eyes the way I beat Cerrone. You disrespect Cerrone and now Aldo too? You ran away. Shut up.
"Another press conference? Haha for what? You are doing a whole load of nothing mate.
"You and Cerrone where locked in to fight since way back and you never had the courage. You ran away and now all you do is talk like b****. Aldo is 100 times the fighter you are, and ever will be.
McGregor has renewed his rivalry with several famous foes in recent weeks, and has been sent a message from two-time former opponent Nate Diaz who believes that the Irishman is 'still far behind' his legacy.
The 33-year-old is currently continuing his recovery from an injury sustained in defeat to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264, and has been called out by YouTube star Jake Paul who believes the Irishman's 'fall from grace' is 'embarrassing and sad'.
With one previous fight in the boxing ring against Floyd Mayweather which made the Irish star 'the second richest loser' in boxing history, McGregor could ponder a return to the iron square as he weighs up several options after his latest defeat in the UFC.
