It appeared that after Max Holloway stopped Anthony Pettis at UFC 206 back in December to become the interim featherweight champion that he would be fighting 145-pound champion Jose Aldo at this Saturday’s UFC 208 for the undisputed championship.
During his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, Holloway was gung-ho on a fight with Aldo. The Hawaiian started to backtrack saying he hurt his foot, then wanting not to miss Christmas training and taking his son to Disney World and then his gym was closed.
Aldo and his camp are baffled on why after calling out the Brazilian and trash talking him at every turn decided he no longer wanted to fight on Feb. 11. Seeing what was going on, Aldo’s coach Andre Pederneiras made a call to the head of UFC matchmaking Sean Shelby to get an explanation on the matter.
“Sincerely I don’t know what goes on this guy’s head, Pederneiras told Combate. “What is happening in UFC today makes us very upset. Holloway, when he accepted the fight with Pettis, both of them knew that the fight was scheduled for February 11th, and both accepted that fight. One or two days later he says that his foot is injured, that he has to take his kid to Disney and that his gym closed. He gave three excuses two days later. It got to the point where I talked with Sean Shelby and he said “I don’t even know what to tell you anymore”.”
“Scarface”then went and called out both UFC 209 interim lightweight title foes, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson. Nurmagomedov and Ferguson turned the fight for different reason. Nurmagomedov’s father didn’t want his son to take the fight and Ferguson wanted more money. Frustration’s set in with Aldo as he wants to fight the best in the world and he feels he’s getting offered fights that make no sense.
“You call the matchmaker and he says: “What’s going on?”, Pederneiras stated. “The guy comes and tells you: “What the guys are saying in front of the cameras isn’t the same of what they talk in the backstage”. I mean, when things get real it’s all talk. We can’t tell Conor “You’ll fight”. The guy doesn’t want to go down (on weight), ok, Aldo goes up and fights him. “But Conor doesn’t want it”. I mean, there is a lot of people saying but we don’t know where it goes. They offered us a fight with Cub Swanson that doesn’t make any sense. “Oh, if Aldo doesn’t want to be inactive he fights Cub Swanson”. Dude, what am I going to do with Cub Swanson? It isn’t like “after him, you get the fight”, no, it’s not him. They are offering us anyone to make the fight.”
