The war of words between UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo and No. 1 contender Chad Mendes over performance-enhancing drugs continued Tuesday with the latter’s appearance on Sherdog Radio.
Asked whether or not he believed Aldo was a PED user, Mendes seemed sure of it.
“I definitely do [think Aldo’s using PEDs],” said Mendes. “This is something that’s been ongoing, but for him to all of a sudden just drop out — I mean he drops out of a lot of fights — but I think it’s pretty coincidental.”
Aldo handed Mendes the first and only loss of his career at UFC 142 in January 2012, starching the challenger with a standing knee KO in the first round. With Aldo not exactly known for bringing personal attacks into his pre-fight promotion, Mendes seems to have stuck a cord with the champ. Calling Mendes ‘a pu**y’ on Jul. 11, Aldo facetiously wondered if ‘Maybe I have so many injuries because I’m not taking the same ‘supplements’ you take.’
“The first time I saw that, for me, this is huge in my mind,” said Mendes of Aldo’s comments. “He’s reaching big time. We have never seen Aldo lash out like this; we’ve never seen him lose his temper. I am in his head. I own him right now.
“This is huge for me. This is huge for me getting in there and taking that belt from him. I’ve never seen him talk like this about anybody. He’s being very disrespectful,” Mendes continued. “I’ve never been caught red-handed or anything. It’s funny to me that as soon as the whole random drug testing started popping up, the next day he is injured and out of the fight. If anything, I could throw that in his face, but whatever.”
Aldo has also criticized Mendes’ campaign to avoid a return trip to Brazil, the site of their first bout two years ago. Mendes has mentioned the difficulty in flying his family out to watch him challenge for the title in Brazil, but seems to have more practical concerns in regard to the local athletic commission’s ability to properly screen athletes for PEDs.
“So this is the thing: We’ve got all this random drug testing, all this stuff that’s going on, testing for EPO, HGH, all this stuff now — they can get away with that stuff over in Brazil,” said Mendes. “This is why he wants me to be in Brazil and fighting in Brazil, [because] they can do all that kind of stuff there.
“For me, I want this to be a fair fight. I went there first; I fought him in his backyard. I think it’s only fair he comes here and fights me in my backyard. Let’s make it one and one and see what happens. We are still working on it. I talked to [UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby] a little bit. It’s a 50/50 percent chance it could end up in Brazil. We are trying obviously to get it pushed here [in the United States, presumably California]. We don’t know for sure.”
The pair’s rematch was originally slated for the main event at UFC 176 Aug. 2 in Los Angeles, California before Aldo was forced to withdraw due to a spine and neck injury. The event was subsequently cancelled or ‘postponed’ as UFC officials put it.
5 MUST-READ STORIES
Dana to the rescue. Dana White repsonds to Nate Diaz, who went after Donald Cerrone for ‘sucking way too much UFC d–k.’ ‘Nate can sit out and not suck any UFC whatever, for as long as he wants to.’
Quick turnaround. Demetrious Johnson puts his flyweight title on the line against Chris Cariaso in the co-main event of Aug. 30 at UFC 177 in Sacramento, California.
‘I was very nervous.’ Chris Weidman says he was worried he’d have to pull out of his middleweight title defense to Lyoto Machida at UFC 175 due to a hand injury.
‘Idiot.’ Conor McGregor calls Chad Mendes ‘an idiot’ for believing Jose Aldo is really trying to avoid fighting him again.
Polygraph. Urijah Faber suggests the use of lie detector tests to combat PED use in MMA. “Ask them point blank, ‘Have you done performance enhancing drugs?’ I think that could be another useful element to keep the sport on track.”
MEDIA STEW
UFC 175: Fight Motion.
Floyd Mayweather doesn’t know who Ronda Rousey is.
The Rock wishes he could have fought MMA. Click here to watch, embed was autoplay.
They might have stuck them as the opener on Fight Pass but the UFC put a nice package together introducing tonight’s strawweights.
MMA dropkick and a few brutal finishes.
Reddit says Khabib uploaded this video. Regardless, it’s amazing
Long watches.
Fight Night Atlantic City: Official Weigh-Ins
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Knuckle Up #409: death of morals, non-troll defense of Dustin Holyko + Weidman-Jones Power PR Moves!
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MMATorch Livecast Tuesday Conversation with special guest Marc Raimondi from FoxSports.com
TWEETS
Would have liked more hashtags.
Some people just suck way too much #UFCdick … An they where cowboy hats
— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) July 15, 2014
174.
From 155 to 174 and that’s that pic.twitter.com/m8xTzRsR3L
— Cowboy Cerrone (@Cowboycerrone) July 16, 2014
Of Strikeforce fame.
Great to have you on board RT @rich_chou Excited to be working with Coker again along with the team here @BellatorMMA
— Scott Coker (@ScottCoker) July 15, 2014
Vlog.
My last vlog with @drinkpositiv before my fight at #UFCDublin. Get an insight into my prep for it here http://t.co/VeJs2M5sFB
— Brad Pickett (@One_Punch) July 15, 2014
Reem looking slim.
Finished another great workout at @ElevateGym pic.twitter.com/zAYEd9CqvO
— Alistair Overeem (@Alistairovereem) July 16, 2014
Cuttin it close.
Just made the weight. Waiting to the official weight ins. Thank you Lord!!! Peso batido, só esperar a… http://t.co/amFT12UA8W
— Claudia Gadelha (@ClaudiaGadelha_) July 15, 2014
Possibly cleaner.
Cowboy is currently staying an RV park in AC vice his hotel room, but…..the way he spends his RV is probably much nicer lol
— Brian Stann (@BrianStann) July 15, 2014
A glasshole who can fight.
Trying out these Google Glasses. Do I look smarter? Lol http://t.co/dNKMePj4Gk pic.twitter.com/tRdeJjeru5
— Cub Swanson (@CubSwanson) July 15, 2014
FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Announced yesterday (Jul. 15 2014)
cancelled Chris Cariaso vs. Kyoji Horiguchi at UFC Fight Night: Hunt vs. Nelson
Demetrious Johnson vs. Chris Cariaso at UFC 177
Efrain Escudero vs. Francisco Trinaldo at UFC Fight Night: Bigfoot vs. Arlovski 2
FANPOST OF THE DAY
Today’s Fanpost of the Day comes via heavyfl0w.
MMA Rundown #3: Independence Day Weekend Recap, Hasta La Vista 176
There were so many Independence Day weekend fights that I’m combining all of them together in my mind. Going from memory, a congenital amputee lost the UFC women’s bantamweight title in 16 seconds after being ragdolled by Dana White’s voice. Or something.
Let’s get to it.
OK, so … who at 185 is messing with Chris Weidman?
I have no idea, but I do know that I ain’t buying Vitor Belfort as that guy. There are way too many potential pratfalls there. Historically, he gets tired and stops throwing offense, and he gets discouraged and sad when you’re getting the better of him. This is a guy that was pulling guard at the start of the 2nd round of his 2006 PRIDE bout with Dan Henderson. They should have just stopped the fight right there and awarded it to Henderson. This is also the dude who laid on his back and allowed Kazushi Sakuraba to kick his legs 352 times. Once Weidman figures out how to stay composed and savvy enough to avoid Vitor’s trademark blitzes (an inevitability since Weidman is far more than “I’ll just run at this guy swinging, and my pure athleticism will make him crumble”), it’s done. You heard it here first.
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Check out the rest of the post here.
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