Aldo doesn't deserve to be treated like shit despite being one the best fighters the UFC has ever had if not the best.
Then why is he?
Just because uncle Dana is a meanie?
Or because he would pull out of major events with minor injuries any other guy would have fought with regardless. Even while being cleared by a doctor to fight.
Or his refusal to learn English even after being champion for 6 years.
Or the fact that you love to remind us that he's been dominating for 10 years, champion for 6, but he only defended 9 times. That's a fight every 8 months. In Cowboy's time frame he dominated for less than 2 years. Mighty Mouse has only been champion for 4 years and he's up to 8 defenses already. Sure 9 defenses is still a lot I will give you that, but...
He was the least watched champion in the whole roster. Even worse than Mighty Mouse. And MM has the excuse of being a flyweight. People usually don't care that much for those divisions. Conor has clearly proved that there's interest in featherweight.
That's why even after "10 years of dominance" he was never offer an immediate rematch. That was never on the table, even if McGregor had stayed at FW. You may disagree with that and that's fair, but that's the reality. If McGregor had stayed at FW it was Frankie's fight.
As for the Aldo Edgar fight I feel it's somewhat similar to Mayweather Pacquiao (minus the hype of course). And I think this applies everytime a fight is called a "clinic". It's just another term for a very technical fight where a guy shows superior skill and is just interested in getting the win. He doesn't care about putting on a show or going for a finish. Those fights appeal to the most hardcore fanbase, but to the regular public they're a snooze fest. I'll freely admit to being a casual in this respect. I found the fight boring as he'll and I'd be happy if I never have to watch either fighter again. I want to be entertained.
Neither of those guys is Mayweather, who's the only one that can get away with that and still have people watch his next fight, just because people want to see him get beat.
So if Aldo wants to take his ball and go home, I'm pretty sure Dana will tell him not to let the door hit him on his way out and I can't say I entirely disagree.
Edit: I'll answer to the guy above me.
The plan was always fight for the belt then go down and defend FW then LW and so on. Dos Anjos threw a major wrench to that plan and we got the Diaz fights.
Now we are back on track. If after this McGregor still doesn't wanna defend the FW belt I don't see how he talks his way out of relinquishing it. If his next fight after Alvarez is at FW he'll get to keep it. The rumours up to the fight said that the point of contention was McGregor keeping his belt and that he offered to defend it early 2017, which seems somewhat reasonable. Still about as active as Aldo.