Jose Aldo injures rib, bout with McGregor to be decided Wed
Andre Pederneiras: “If the fracture is really confirmed, Jose Aldo will have to stop training … I believe this fight wouldn’t happen before October.”
Reliable Combate correspondent Ana Hissa broke the news that UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo fractured a rib while sparring on Tuesday morning with 5-0 lightweight Alcides Nunes.
Ana Hissa @AnaHissa
•Aldo injured during sparring session, exams confirm fractured rib
•Yesterday that was a rumor that aldo was injured. Not true. The injury happened today, tuesday morning, during sparring session
The UFC spent an unprecedented sum promoting the fight, which was reportedly on schedule to earn over 1,000,000 buys. Ariel Helwani reports that news of the injury leaking complicated matters for Aldo’s camp.
“One source told me the Aldo injury news leaking hurts things, as you can imagine,” tweeted Helwani. “If it was kept quiet, it coulda changed his plan of attack.”
There would certainly be a precedent for Aldo pulling out. Late last year a study identified Nova Uniao as having the #2 highest rate of pulling out of fights due to injury. UGer Canned Hams compiled a list of fights Aldo was forced to pull out of due to injury.
UFC 125: Jose Aldo scheduled to defend his belt for the first time against Josh Grispi, but he was injured in training for the fight. Rather than wait for Aldo to mend, Grispi accepted an interim fight against Dustin Poirier, where he lost, and thus lost his number one contender status. Aldo then defeated Mark Hominick at UFC 129.
UFC 149: Jose Aldo scheduled to fight Erik Koch, but he was injured in training and the bout was rescheduled, only for Koch to get injured this time, and he was replaced by Frankie Edgar for UFC 153, however…
UFC 153: When due to fight Frankie Edgar who was stepping in for Erik Koch, Aldo got injured again. This time the re-scheduled fight between Aldo and Edgar took place three events later at UFC 156.
UFC 176: Jose Aldo scheduled for a rematch against Chad Mendes, but he got injured in training, and instead fought Mendes three events later at UFC 179 in October 2014, he hasn’t fought since.
And now this…
UFC president Dana White did offer a cryptic tweet.
Dana White @danawhite
Relax everyoneI
Nova Uniao head coach Andre Pederneiras told Combate that Aldo wants to fight, but the determination will be made by his doctor on Wednesday morning.
“He cried. He wants this fight bad, everybody invested a lot in this,” said Pederneiras, as transcribed by Guilherme Cruz for MMAFighting.com. “I was with him the whole afternoon. He’s heartbroken. He wants to fight anyway. Now we have to wait for the exam results. Aldo is in deep pain.”
“If the fracture is really confirmed, Aldo will have to stop training, do nothing for three or four weeks until it’s fixed, and then he would be able to do any exercise without forcing his rib. And then he would need a normal time to do a training camp: three months. I believe this fight wouldn’t happen before October.” Grand.
UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler fights Rory MacDonald in the co-main. Given the amount of money spent on promoting Aldo vs. McGregor, if Aldo is unable to fight, it seems likely the fight will be postponed.