For Nova Uniao coach Andre Pederneiras, the situation is simple. Conor McGregor should either grant Jose Aldo an immediate rematch or vacate the UFC featherweight belt he won just a short month ago.
Speaking to Sherdog.com, Pederneiras said he isn’t interested in having Aldo fight Frankie Edgar for the interim featherweight title while awaiting the outcome of UFC 197 featuring a lightweight title bout between McGregor and Rafael dos Anjos.
The Brazilian coach said Aldo asked UFC for four years about fighting at 155 pounds but his requests were allegedly denied:
“If Conor goes up he should relinquish the featherweight belt. We had an issue with Anthony Pettis in the past that was actually created by me. Aldo wanted to go up and fight for the lightweight title and the UFC said no. Pettis then decided he wanted to come down to featherweight to fight for the title. Originally we said no, as he wasn’t even the lightweight champion at the time and wanted to go straight into a featherweight title match. When he won the lightweight belt I tweeted at him during the press conference. ‘Pettis are you going to give up your 155 belt to face Aldo at 145?’ He answered, ‘No!’, and Dana [White] immediately replied that’s not my place to get involved and that’s something that’s not my option.”
According to Aldo’s coach, the former world’s number one pound for pound fighter is in the gym every day and is focused entirely on a rematch against McGregor.
“When you build a sport you need to follow rules and the rules need to be the same for everyone regardless of their name.”
Aldo recently revealed that he had a secret agreement with Conor McGregor that whomever won the featherweight belt would vacate the title and move up to fight at 155 pounds. But the Irishman has no intention of giving up his precious, leaving several fighters in limbo wondering when they can have their shot at the hardware.
If you think that’s bad, imagine if he beats dos Anjos and heads to welterweight? The ego mind boggles.