Coach: Aldo might have been over confident
“Maybe overconfident, because he was really well. He was so confident in the victory he thought ‘I’ll throw and will catch him’. It’s a split-second decision. “
Former UFC flyweight Jose Aldo’s head coach Andre Pederneiras recently spoke with Brazil’s Combate, and said the fighter was so confident of beating Conor McGregor at UFC 194 that he didn’t follow the strategy, but would not characterize what happened as a mistake.
“I wouldn’t say anxious,” said Pederneiras, as translated by Guilherme Cruz for MMA Fighting. “Maybe overconfident, because he was really well. He was so confident in the victory he thought ‘I’ll throw and will catch him’. It’s a split-second decision. Or you attack, or you get out. He decided to attack, and the other guy threw a counter to defend. He attacked, but moving in a way to stop (Aldo’s) attack.”
“How can you say a superchampion like Aldo made a wrong decision? If you analyze the fight, Aldo threw the first straight, a fake straight, and McGregor threw his punch and it wouldn’t land on Aldo’s chin, but on his head. But Aldo moves up, moves his chin up, and (the punch) lands on his chin. McGregor wanted to land on his head. And with Aldo moving up, McGregor can’t say he calculated to hit right there.
“He will say this, but it’s something hard to say, especially because if Aldo goes in and throws his punch, it wouldn’t have landed. However, he was happy. Let’s say it wasn’t a lucky punch, he programmed that, but the way it connected on his chin when he moved forward, I think it was lucky.”
McGregor plans to fight Rafael dos Anjos for the lightweight title, and then Frankie Edgar to defend the featherweight belt.
Aldo has campaigned for an immediate rematch ever since the fight was over. McGregor still has to figure out his next move, going to lightweight to challenge Rafael dos Anjos or defend his 145-pound belt versus Frankie Edgar. Pederneiras doesn’t those those are the sole options. If Ronda Rousey gets an immediate rematch, Pederneiras thinks Aldo should, too.
“Well, I disagree,” he said. “They don’t care if I agree or not, but here’s what I say: I can’t see Aldo not fighting for a belt or not in an immediate rematch. It wouldn’t be fair if that doesn’t happen, but happen to others. ‘There’s no immediate rematch for anyone’, cool, we know what the rule is. ‘(There’s rematch) because she’s blond and sells well’? I’ll dye Aldo’s hair. Right?
“I don’t see other scenario than a new fight, so we can really have a fight. In my head, what happened wasn’t a fight, just a punch that landed and ended it quickly.”
Aldo hopes to fight again in April. The strategy might be different vs. McGregor the second time.
“I think the ground would be a good option, but I don’t rule out a five-round, stand-up fight,” he said. “Aldo has strong blows, he can really hurt the opponent. In this fight, he was confident both standing and on the ground, he’ll be fine.”
