Trading Shots: On Jose Aldo's injury withdrawal, and the rarity of fighters looking out for themselves

In this week’s Trading Shots, MMAjunkie columnist Ben Fowlkes and retired UFC/WEC fighter Danny Downes discuss Jose Aldo’s injury withdrawal from his main event bout opposite Conor McGregor at UFC 189, and the war of conflicting information that preceded it.

Fowlkes: You know how you can tell that the UFC 189 main event bout between UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor was a special one, Danny? Even the very familiar narrative of “Fighter A injured, out of bout with Fighter B, replaced by Fighter C” was disrupted by a little added drama.

Between the UFC claiming Aldo’s broken rib was just bruised and Aldo pulling out of yet another title fight, there’s a lot to discuss here. My first question to you is, how does this turn of events shape the way you see Aldo? How about the way you see his employers at the UFC, who seemed to think he should have gone ahead and fought with his rib all broke up?

Downes: Aldo pulling out of the fight due to injury may be disappointing, but it doesn’t change anything about how I view him. If anything, I admire the fact that he stuck to that decision. I’m sure there was a lot of pressure (both self-imposed and from others) to fight injured, and he decided against it.

I’ve never figured out why someone deciding to not fight with an injury makes them “soft.” We love to promote this idea of a “warrior’s heart,” but all we’re really doing is promoting stupidity. Have a cracked rib and need to step in a cage with another person who’s spent months/years of his life training to beat you up? DO IT ANYWAY! What are you, some type of coward?

I know a lot of fighters who have taken fights (UFC and otherwise) with injuries. They’ve stepped in with broken hands, torn shoulder muscles, and recently suffered concussions. After every event we hear a fighter discuss his training camp injuries. Most of the time we dismiss that fighter as a loser making excuses, but those injuries do exist. We shouldn’t be mad at Aldo for having the luxury of being able to pull out of a fight. He can afford to do it. Good for him.

What I don’t get is, a fighter gets hurt and we want to attack him. Why? Is it because we are upset that we don’t get to watch the fight we want? Is it because we think that Aldo brought it on himself?

Fowlkes: I think it’s mostly because we’re bummed and we want someone to blame. This was a big fight. The UFC did a freaking world tour to promote it, then inundated us with ads for it. Now it’s off. Fans are understandably disappointed, but for some reason they have a hard time accepting that this could have happened to anyone.

And while we’re on the topic, can people stop acting like anyone who gets hurt in training is irresponsible? Everyone wants to tell Aldo what he did wrong here, but how’s he supposed to be fully prepared for the unique style of McGregor if he doesn’t have anyone throwing crazy kicks at him in training? If you know a risk-free way to prepare for a cage fight, by all means, please tell us.

But you didn’t answer my question about the UFC. Kind of seems like Zuffa executives were looking for any way to keep him in this fight, even if it meant downplaying the extent of his injury. That’s a problem, is it not? Or do we put this burden to ensure fighter safety on the Nevada State Athletic Commission alone?

Downes: If an organization purposely lies and misrepresents an injury, that’s definitely a problem. Can you prove that that’s what happened? You just gave fans a pass for throwing Aldo under that bus and trashing him. Truth be told, “They were mad they didn’t get what they wanted,” isn’t exactly the best defense, though. You may have been kicked out of med school, but you probably wouldn’t have done that well in law school either.

Now we know that Aldo has a fractured rib. Beforehand, there were a lot of conflicting reports. Was that because of a lack of communication/information, or something more nefarious? People have already drawn their conclusions on that one.

Promoters want the fight they book to happen. You can put “bout lineup subject to change” at the bottom of posters or promo videos, but fans aren’t that understanding. So, when a high profile fighter comes to you saying, “Hey, I’m injured; I can’t fight,” you need to think of something to do. Asking someone, “Are you sure? Is it that bad?” and trying to talk them into going through with it may seem unsavory, but it doesn’t strike me as failing to “ensure fighter safety.”

I’ve seen promoters offer guys more money to fight hurt, and I’ve seen fighters take them up on the offer. Is that endangering a fighter? Yes, there’s a certain line where the idea of “the show must go on” crosses into negligence, but I don’t think we’re in that territory.

Fowlkes: When you say there were “a lot of conflicting reports,” what you mean is Aldo’s camp said one thing and the UFC said another. Now we know Aldo’s camp was right, but it’s true that we don’t know exactly what UFC executives knew and when they knew it. Instead we’ll have to settle for the knowledge that, whether intentionally or not, they sent out a statement that specifically said Aldo did not have the injury that he turned out to totally have. If the MMA media made that sort of error, Danny, I suspect you’d have something to say about it.

But here’s where we come back to the luxury of being Jose Aldo. Not only could he afford to pull out of a fight that UFC executives clearly didn’t want him to withdraw from, he also had the means to get a former NFL team doctor to look at his MRI just to quiet the doubters.

Think about that for a moment. Fighter goes to his doctor in Brazil, who says his rib is broken. UFC has its own doctors conduct “a review of the scans,” after which the organization releases a statement claiming “it has been determined that the champion suffered a bone bruise to his rib and cartilage injury during training.” Then, after Aldo pulls out anyway and is beset by people calling him a coward and a faker, he has to get an unbiased, reputable doctor to essentially write him a note saying, yes, this man’s rib is broken. And still you know some people will say he should have fought anyway.

Point is, how many other fighters on the roster have the luxury of calling in a former San Diego Chargers team doctor to look at their MRI? How many would have been convinced to go through with the fight instead?

And that’s what’s concerning, is that there’s no trustworthy apparatus in place to protect fighters from themselves. The NSAC essentially said it would leave the decision up to Aldo and the UFC, unless he failed pre-fight medicals at the last minute. And Danny, you know better than I do that those pre-fight exams have been known to let a few injuries slip through the cracks.

So who’s looking out for the fighters? That’s my question. The athletic commission doesn’t seem able or willing to tell a guy with a broken rib that he can’t fight. The UFC’s doctors seem willing to look at a broken bone and call it a bruise. If the fighter isn’t willing to stand up for himself, knowing it will make him an instant pariah, what is there to keep a guy with a broken rib out of the cage?

I know sometimes pro athletes have to tough it out and play hurt, but would fans even want to pay 60 bucks to see a guy with a broken rib attempt to fight? Because, personally, with Chad Mendes stepping in against McGregor, I think we got the best possible outcome given the circumstances here. I also think a lot of other fighters would have made a different choice, only to regret it later.

Downes: If you really want to know who’s looking out for fighters, the answer is no one. The athletic commission seemed content to let things go. Promoters clearly have a different motivation. Fans would rather call you out for being soft. Most of the time you can’t even trust teammates or management, because they don’t want to ruin their relationship with a promoter.

When you ask whether fans would want to see a guy with a broken rib fight, I say yes. They’ve seen tons of injured fighters compete, they just didn’t know about it. Imagine if nothing leaked from the Aldo camp. The fight would have gone as planned, and if we were told after that Aldo had fought hurt and lost, we’d accuse him of making excuses.

Like I said earlier, I’m impressed that Aldo did what was right for him. We ask fighters to make sacrifices for the show or for fans all the time. When is that feeling ever reciprocated?

We may miss out on one of the most anticipated matches in MMA history. If McGregor loses this coming Saturday, Mendes vs. Aldo III doesn’t have quite the same appeal. Then we’ll add Aldo/McGregor to one of those “10 Greatest Fights That Never Happened” lists. There will be more fights. There will be more disappointments. Let’s just hope there are more fighters that have the luxury to make the same choice as Aldo.

Ben Fowlkes is MMAjunkie and USA TODAY’s MMA columnist. Danny Downes, a retired UFC and WEC fighter, is an MMAjunkie contributor who also writes for UFC.com and UFC 360. Follow them on twitter at @benfowlkesMMA and @dannyboydownes.