Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Although it was already quite official that they would meet over the summer—with rumors abuzz that the very notable contest would happen over Memorial Day weekend—this past weekend UFC capo Dana White announced that Conor McGregor would get a title shot against José Aldo on July 11th, as the headlining event of the UFC 189 main card. The contest will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

If all goes as planned, the fight will be Aldo’s 10th UFC Featherweight Champion of the World title defense, counting his wins in the now-defunct WEC. It will be his eighth title defense in the UFC. Aldo is arguably the best featherweight in the world, clocking in 18 straight victories, seven of those in the UFC.

Heading into the July 11th date, Conor McGregor is as confident as ever. With five consecutive wins in the UFC—four of those via knockout and one decision over Max Holloway—McGregor said during a questions and answers session with fans on Friday before UFC 183 that Aldo’s "shot selection is poor,” and that he would “classify him as an intermediate at best.” He feels Aldo’s “kicking game is overrated really. He cannot kick high. I don't feel there's anything special about him. He's just another body that moves the way they all move,” just another body that McGregor will successfully “shut down.”

The California Kid Urijah Faber feels differently about Aldo’s kicking and striking game, as do Chad Mendes, Chang Sung Jung, Manny Gambian and Cub Swanson. But alas, this is Conor McGregor.

McGregor, however, did not say anything about Aldo’s jiu jitsu or ground game, and that may be because there’s simply no way you can knock Aldo’s jiu jitsu. A black-belt, this Brazilian holds grappling wins over some of the rarest jiu jitsu players in the whole world. Cobrinha (twice as a brown belt), Wilson Reis, Bruno Frazatto. Aldo beat all of those guys. Ask any one of your BJJ homies what that means if you don’t know. It’s important that you learn.

In any case, in a really tight move that sheds light on a rather serious and mature side of himself, Conor McGregor is scheduled to appear and compete in this year’s International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation No Gi Europeans, which are in Rome, Italy, on April 11th, 2015, three months before his scheduled appearance opposite Aldo at UFC 183.

This shows a McGregor less interested in marketing himself—he’s already done that to a tee—and more interested in going as hard as possible, taking that extra mile, to get to where he needs to be to put his money where his mouth and be able to beat the king, José Aldo. Regardless of what he’s saying out in front of the media, this shows us that he understands how big the task ahead is, that he knows Aldo is hard as fuck, that he respects his opponent’s power.

In 2012, Conor competed in the same tournament, reaching the quarter finals after a noteworthy victory over Kywan Gracie Behring—a direct descendant of the Rickson Gracie jiu jitsu lineage.

This is an admirable way for Conor McGregor and his team to put his ground game—which critics have so often been quick to say it hasn’t yet been challenged—to evaluate the Irishman in a pressurized scenario. That way, McGregor will be able to come, truly, as prepared as possible into the biggest fight of his life.

Currently, the Notorious Irishman is a brown belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu, having been under the tutelage of and promoted by his master and coach John Kavanagh, who happens to be the first Irish person to ever receive a black belt in the gentle art.

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