Coach Pederneiras on Tony Ferguson's refusal to fight Jose Aldo: 'When we offered it, he ran'

A few weeks ago, coach Andre Pederneiras detailed the negotiations behind featherweight champion Jose Aldo’s possible ascent to the UFC’s lightweight division.

The idea was for Aldo (26-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) to face either Khabib Nurmagomedov (24-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) or Tony Ferguson (22-3 MMA, 12-1 UFC), the top 155-pound contenders, for an interim title – and hopefully come closer to fulfilling his goal of rematching lightweight champ and ex-featherweight-titleholder Conor McGregor.

While neither of these matchups materialized, with Nurmagomedov and Ferguson now set fight each other for an interim lightweight title at UFC 209 on March 4 in Las Vegas, the plans for Aldo’s lightweight run aren’t dead.

“We’re doing some negotiations with the UFC,” Pederneiras said during a social media Q&A. “It depends on some agreements. There’s this interest in moving up, and it could’ve happened now, with the challenge that Aldo issued to Khabib, who’s No. 1 in the (UFC) rankings. Turned out he didn’t take it. Then we issued it to Tony Ferguson, who’d talked a bunch of crap on the Internet two weeks before, saying even that he would fight Aldo. But then when we offered it, he ran and didn’t take it.”

Looking back, both Pederneiras and Aldo can understand why the undefeated Nurmagomedov, who’s No. 2 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA lightweight rankings, turned down the scrap. But the Nova Uniao head coach is not that understanding when it comes to No. 3 Ferguson, who’d outlined his plans to garner multiple UFC belts and even brought up Aldo’s name in an interview with FOXSports.com.

“Sometimes the guy talks a bunch, and when they offer what he’s talking about, he says he doesn’t want it,” Pederneiras said. “So, the guy just wants attention. And that’s what happened now. We tried Khabib, who turned it down because his dad felt it wasn’t worth it at the moment. We’re not saying he’s scared, because an athlete who’s used to fighting in the UFC is not afraid of anyone. There are moments in a fighter’s career that he needs to be able to pick and use in his favor.

“They felt, on Khabib’s side, it wasn’t the right moment to take a fight like this. On Tony Ferguson’s side, I can’t say the same. Because if two weeks before you say you want to get the guy, that you can move down a weight division to fight the champion, and they offer the fight in your division and you say no? Then you don’t really have what to say.”

Still unbooked, Aldo had told Brazilian channel Combate earlier this week that he’s now eyeing an April or May return. And, when it comes to his lightweight colleagues, the featherweight champ doesn’t seem to hold any grudges.

“(The move up) was very close,” Aldo said. “Let’s say, I was very close. I went into a small alleyway there, I cut in line, but then Khabib said no. Which is fair, too – he’s within his right. Ferguson too. But hopefully we can pop up at any moment in the upper class.”

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