Brazilian doctor disagrees with Dana White, says Jose Aldo’s ribs are broken

Jose Aldo’s injury is still surrounded by controversy.

The UFC featherweight champion was forced out of UFC 189 main event opposite Conor McGregor with a rib injury, but UFC president Dana White maintains that Aldo’s ribs were bruised, but not broken.

Aldo didn’t fly to Las Vegas for Saturday’s UFC 189, which will now be headlined by McGregor vs. Chad Mendes for the interim title, and that could be one of the reasons why American doctors can’t diagnose Aldo’s injury properly.

“It’s hard for a doctor to evaluate an injury by looking at a medical report only,” Brazilian orthopedist Dr. Rickson Moraes, the first doctor to diagnose Aldo’s broken ribs, told MMAFighting.com on Friday. “Aldo has an occult rib fracture and the MRI shows that, but I believe the UFC only got the x-ray exams at first.”

White said on Friday that Aldo’s exams, posted by MMAFighting.com on July 1st, showed an old injury, but Dr. Moraes disputes that.

“I examined Aldo again when they had doubts,” said Dr. Moraes, who was asked to ignore doctor-patient confidentiality by Aldo’s team and explain the injury to the media. “He has an acute injury, and you can have it exactly where you had injuries before. That’s what happened. He had an injury there before, and fractured a rib this time.”

Aldo doesn’t have a timetable to return to training yet, but will likely return to the Octagon later this year against the winner of McGregor vs. Mendes.

Jose Aldo injury

Jose Aldo’s injury is still surrounded by controversy.

The UFC featherweight champion was forced out of UFC 189 main event opposite Conor McGregor with a rib injury, but UFC president Dana White maintains that Aldo’s ribs were bruised, but not broken.

Aldo didn’t fly to Las Vegas for Saturday’s UFC 189, which will now be headlined by McGregor vs. Chad Mendes for the interim title, and that could be one of the reasons why American doctors can’t diagnose Aldo’s injury properly.

“It’s hard for a doctor to evaluate an injury by looking at a medical report only,” Brazilian orthopedist Dr. Rickson Moraes, the first doctor to diagnose Aldo’s broken ribs, told MMAFighting.com on Friday. “Aldo has an occult rib fracture and the MRI shows that, but I believe the UFC only got the x-ray exams at first.”

White said on Friday that Aldo’s exams, posted by MMAFighting.com on July 1st, showed an old injury, but Dr. Moraes disputes that.

“I examined Aldo again when they had doubts,” said Dr. Moraes, who was asked to ignore doctor-patient confidentiality by Aldo’s team and explain the injury to the media. “He has an acute injury, and you can have it exactly where you had injuries before. That’s what happened. He had an injury there before, and fractured a rib this time.”

Aldo doesn’t have a timetable to return to training yet, but will likely return to the Octagon later this year against the winner of McGregor vs. Mendes.

Jose Aldo injury