Aldo's teammate, Yan Cabral challenges McGregor: 'I want to beat him up'

With a new look, Y. Cabral debuted with victory in the lightweight division. Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC

Even with a fight scheduled for January 18th, when he faces Dennis Siver in Boston (USA), the Irishman Conor McGregor was appointed by president Dana White as the featherweight champion's next challenger José Aldo. However, if it depends on Manauara's training partner on the Nova União team Yan Cabral, McGregor will not face Aldo, but himself or any other athlete from the Rio academy.

“I thought about it a lot and there is a guy who has been talking a lot, including Aldo and, for me, he is a badass, who is McGregor. He's a featherweight, but he's already thought about trying out at lightweight. I've also thought about going down to 66 kg and one day I'd like to fight him and give him a few punches. At the gym there are more than ten feathers to beat him with. Until he gets to Aldo, there are a lot of people out to beat him. And if Hacran Dias catches him, he will kill him”, said Cabral, in a chat with the press after his victory over Naoyuki Kotani at UFC Rio 5, last Saturday (25).

After winning again, and getting his first submission in the UFC, the jiu-jitsu specialist was excited for the future in the organization, demonstrated confidence in the evolution of his stand-up game and even tried to carve out a spot at UFC Barueri, which takes place on December 20th. “If they give me a fight next month, I’m in. My weight is good, I'm injury-free and I want to fight as much as possible. If Barueri happens, I'm in. I want to go back as soon as possible. I've been training a lot in boxing with Alex Cardoso, in the first round I tried to find the distance, I couldn't release everything I trained, but that's normal. Little by little I will loosen up more and always improve to reach the top,” he guaranteed.

At 31 years old, Yan Cabral has a record of 12 wins and one loss. A participant in TUF Brasil 2, the Nova União athlete debuted in Ultimate with a victory over David Mitchell, but suffered his first setback shortly afterwards, when he ended up being defeated by the American Zak Cummings. After the negative result, Cabral decided to move to the lightweight category, in which he debuted with a victory over Naoyuki Kotani.

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