Andre Pederneiras says UFC acted 'totally wrong' with Jose Aldo, sees shift in blame: 'Is it his fault that he doesn't s

When Jose Aldo meets with UFC officials on Wednesday to decide his future, manager and head coach Andre Pederneiras will be by his side – just as he’s been since a fresh-off-the-plane Aldo arrived at his gym with no money looking to become an MMA fighter.

If their relationship was as simple as manager/coach-fighter, Pederneiras might have spent more time trying to talk Aldo (26-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) out of his decision to leave the UFC – and MMA altogether.

But that, as he’ll tell you himself, is certainly not the case.

“I tried to use arguments so that he’d think about it because I think sometimes you make emotional decisions and end up regretting them,” Pederneiras told MMAjunkie. “I told him to think about it so we could talk. I’ve been talking to him since, but his mind is made up.  I can’t tell him ‘You’re doing it because I want you to do it. Aren’t I like a father? So I’m ordering you to do it.’ I won’t do that.”

Personal relationships aside, Pederneiras is also a businessman. And, as such, he says he’s always stood behind most of the UFC’s decisions – even when they don’t seem particularly appealing to his athletes.

In this case, however, he believes Aldo was wronged.

More than the announcement that 145-pound champ Conor McGregor would get a shot at Eddie Alvarez’s lightweight belt in UFC 205’s headlining spot, Pederneiras believes the major issue was the lack of transparency when it came to discussing Aldo’s future.

“I think they lacked truth in the situation,” Pederneiras said. “When you promise something and you don’t deliver, you can even get a new chance – but the problem was the number of times it happened. I’m(UFC President) Dana White’s biggest defender. I always tell my athletes we need to trust him, because what he and Lorenzo (Fertitta, former UFC CEO) did for the sport – I don’t think anyone else could have.

“But I can’t defend him and then just let him off the hook. Just because I’m friends with him and I like him and I appreciate what he’s done for the sport doesn’t mean I’ll say he’s right about everything. The situation with Aldo, specifically – the UFC acted totally wrong.”

According to Pederneiras, the issue is that Aldo – who says he had his own request denied when he wanted to try becoming a two-division champ – was told he would either rematch McGregor to unify the belt or that, in case the Irishman wanted to pursue the upper division’s title, go on to become the only champ and defend it against someone else.

And, as far as treating Aldo wrongly goes, Pederneiras also believes there’s an unfair weight being put on him – a result of what both he and Aldo believe are flaws in the UFC’s promotional strategy. If Aldo doesn’t “sell,” Pederneiras argues, it might not be all on him.

“I think there’s something that wasn’t built correctly in the UFC,” Pederneiras said. “Just because they built the UFC, doesn’t mean that everything they do is right. (The word promoter) entails promoting the event and the athlete. How many big athletes has the UFC made to sell more than 1 million pay-per-views? And how many athletes does the UFC have? Is it Aldo’s fault that he doesn’t sell? Is it Aldo’s fault because he doesn’t speak English? Don’t the others speak English? And do they sell? Weren’t they champions? Why don’t they sell? Is it the fighter’s fault, or the promotion’s?

“Taking the blame from me and placing it on you – that’s the best of worlds, isn’t it? I, the promotor, have 500 people, and only two or three sell. Am I a good promoter, or is it the athlete’s fault? I can be wrong with one, but with 497? Aldo never refused to do promotion. He was traveling all over with (McGregor) for 10 days. He unfortunately broke his rib and the fight didn’t happen.

“I don’t want a weight that Aldo doesn’t deserve to carry to be thrown upon him – a guy who did what few did in the UFC.”

As for the possibility of next week’s meeting resulting in anything other than a contract cancellation, Pederneiras was even more assertive than Aldo. Even if the UFC acquiesces to the interim champ’s request to fight former 155-pound titleholder Anthony Pettis (a plea made before UFC 205’s headliner announcement), they’re out.

And the sooner they can cut legal ties to the promotion, the better.

Jose Aldo

“We’re going to sit down and talk and explain he doesn’t want it anymore,” Pederneiras said. “He doesn’t want to fight in the UFC anymore. Forget any athlete you can think of. His idea is to stop. Not Pettis, not Jon Jones, no one.”

“The problem is that Aldo still has six fights on his contract. And today’s situation might be different tomorrow. I told him, ‘We need to resolve this situation today, because now you want to do something with soccer. But then if tomorrow you change, say tomorrow comes with a truckload of money and you’ll have to say no because you’re still under contract with the UFC.’”

So does it mean that if someone – say, a different MMA promotion – offers a truckload of money, Aldo would consider it?

“Today, no way,” Pederneiras clarified. “Aldo has a stable life right now. But life changes. I have personal experience with that. My father worked at a bank and was the guy below the bank’s owner. He had a leg problem and was (expletive) from one day to the other with five kids. So, Aldo is doing great, but say something changes and he desperately needs to fight? He’s stuck to a contract. But his idea is to never fight MMA again.”

When describing just how binding his contract is, Aldo said they held the rights to his breathing. Pederneiras wouldn’t go that far but says that it is, in fact, quite strict. And, while now they’re able to enjoy some leniency due to their relationships, he wants to make sure they don’t run into any problems should circumstances change.

That is, more than they already have.

“There are many things that he can’t do,” Pederneiras explained. “For instance – contractually, he couldn’t even visit Shooto (Pederneiras’ own MMA promotion). He can’t be at a different event. They allow him because he’s my friend, but contractually he couldn’t.

“Now, Dana is in charge. But if tomorrow someone else comes, and then they read the contract and see him there and think, ‘What is this guy doing there? I’m going to sue him.’ Things are changing. (The UFC) has a new owner. I think Dana will stick around for a while, but I don’t think he’ll be in the UFC forever. He already has other priorities. Back in the day, I can’t remember an event without Dana there.”

Like Aldo, other UFC athletes like former middleweight champion Anderson Silva, lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov, and bantamweight contender Julianna Pena have recently stepped up complaining about what they feel is unfair treatment by the promotion.

Asked whether that’s going to motivate any form of change on the promotion’s side, Pederneiras is unsure.

“It’s hard to say because there are new people coming in, I don’t know what they think,” Pederneiras said. “Dana is with them, and I think he’ll be able to say how the market is going.

“But I think the final decision is no longer in his hands. There are other people. So we don’t know what will happen. We’re going there to see what happens and resolve this situation.”

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.