Sherdog.com: Did everything go as expected in Barao’s fight
against Urijah
Faber?
Andre Pederneiras: The strategy we devised worked very well, from
the weight cut to the fight. Everything was 100-percent. It only
could have gone better if he had scored a knockout, as we planned,
but he hurt his foot on Faber’s knee or shin early in the second
round and he couldn’t kick with his right leg. We planned on
kicking the legs a lot, and that ended up killing one thing he
would have done. Today, he’ll take some tests to see how the foot
is. The fight lacked a knockout, but we have to take our hats off
to Faber. I had already spoken to him before and he is an American
with the heart of a Brazilian fighter.
Sherdog.com: One of the most impressive things in the fight was
Barao’s dominance during all five rounds. He wasn’t threatened at
any time.
Pederneiras: In studying Faber’s fights, we saw that he gets
stronger when he takes control of the fight. If you begin to
pressure him and make him move backwards, he can’t do that. So,
when he attacks and you counter, he begins to walk back and lose
himself a little. That’s what we were able to do and everything
worked out, with Barao chasing him all the time.
Sherdog.com: After the fight, some outlets reported that Barao
will defend his interim title before fighting against champion
Dominick
Cruz. Is that true?
Pederneiras: Actually, Dana [White, UFC president] said he would
face Dominick, and then a reporter asked Barao if he would fight
before then, if Dominick stayed out for too long. Barao said he
would accept another fight because he’s a UFC employee, but in my
opinion, that shouldn’t happen. The next fight should for the belt
against Dominick.
Sherdog.com: Barao’s title also served to crown your partnership
with Jair Lourenco, the leader of Kimura/Nova Uniao in Natal, Rio
Grande do Norte.
Pederneiras: Absolutely. We’ve had a long partnership not only with
Jair, but with several Nova Uniao branches throughout Brazil, and
when an athlete is interested in migrating to MMA, he comes to Rio
de Janeiro to train with us. Jair sends these fighters, as does
Guilherme
Santos and Nonato Machado from Manaus, which is an even older
partnership than that of Jair. From there came Marcos
Galvao, Jose Aldo and
“Kiki” [Arlisson
Melo]. We always had a great relationship with our gyms
throughout Brazil, and Jair especially, since he is always here to
bring his athletes. His students are very tough and I think Barao
would have been a champion regardless of having trained here,
because he’s a top athlete. Jair gets all the credit for this
achievement.
Sherdog.com: Jose Aldo is expected to face Erik Koch at
UFC
153 in Rio. Is he recovered from the injury that kept him out
of UFC
149?
Pederneiras: He has returned to training. He keeps doing physical
therapy, even without pain, just to avoid any risk. That was a
request from his physical therapist and I also agreed. He’s not on
pace to train very hard because the time hasn’t arrived yet, but
he’s doing all the groundwork without pain and everything is OK.