Jose Aldo claims he wasn’t the one who tweeted laughing emojis after Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor

RIO DE JANEIRO — Jose Aldo’s immediate reaction to Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor wasn’t well-received by MMA fans, but did he actually go on Twitter after the boxing match?

Moments after Mayweather improved to 50-0 in the boxing ring with a 10th round knockout victory over “The Notorious” on Aug. 27, the former UFC featherweight champion posted laughing emojis on his Twitter page.

Speaking with the media Friday night at his burger joint “Famous Burger" in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Aldo explained that he wasn’t the one who posted that tweet.

"First of all, I didn’t even watch the fight,” Aldo said. "I went to a football game, which is the No. 1 sport for me. I love it, so I didn’t even watch the fight or know what happened.

"There’s some people that take care of my social media, so I can’t even say what happened because I didn’t stop to watch the fight. I talked about it (that night) because I was surrounded by boxers, and they talked about the fight, but I haven’t watched it so I can’t comment on it."

Asked if he was not the one who posted the tweet, Aldo doubled down.

"It’s tough. You know what every athlete has a company that handles his social media. So that’s it," he said.

Aldo suffered his first MMA defeat in 10 years when he fought McGregor in the UFC cage in 2015. The Nova Uniao fighter went back to reclaim the title with a win over Frankie Edgar the next year, but recently suffered another setback versus Max Holloway.

McGregor received a lot of praise from the MMA community after going 10 rounds against one of the best professional boxers of all times in his boxing debut, but Aldo doesn’t think you can call it a "moral victory" for the Irishman.

"Of course not. It’s not a moral (victory),” Aldo said. "First of all, you’re trying to prove (what) against a 41-year-old fighter who hasn’t fought in years… Of course, it’s a fight for a lot of money, but a moral victory would be against an active boxer, a champion. Then he wouldn’t even last a round. It’s a completely different sport.

"Mayweather just waited for the time to attack," he added. "He hasn’t fought in two years. Many people talk shit, not the media, but many people keep saying ‘oh, he landed more punches than Pacquiao, Cotto and everyone else,' but they don’t take into consideration that (Mayweather) hasn’t fought in two years. He didn’t even train properly for the fight. He knew it would work. Brother, one chance in a million for Conor to defeat Mayweather."

That doesn’t mean “Scarface" saw no benefits from the Mayweather-McGregor boxing bout, though. The Brazilian star, who has complained about fighter pay several times in the past, believes it could change the way MMA fighters are paid in the future.

"I think this fight was good because of that, it put MMA in the spotlight,” Aldo said. "I’m happy for that. I think that’s something good for fighters. We deserve to make more (money). Not taking anything away from other sports, but our sport is unique. We don’t train only one martial art per day, we train three or four, plus conditioning training. We deserve to make a lot more than we make.

"Nothing against it, I’m happy because the guy did a big fight and promoted MMA, I’m happy because of that, but not about the fight. Nobody liked the fight. It was a joke. I don’t know how people saw it here in Brazil, but in America the comments that I heard were those. It was a circus fight."