Jose Aldo var en av de tre deltagarna i en kommande UFC-gala som hoppade av sina planerade matcher under gårdagen. Han skulle egentligen ha mött Frankie Edgar för att försvara sitt fjäderviktsbälte på UFC 153. Men på grund av en skada som kom efter en mindre motorcykelolycka så var han tvungen att hoppa av. Detta var dock absolut inte hans största önskan.
“It’s been almost 10 days since Aldo’s motorcycle accident and he had improved greatly,” säger Aldos team-chef Andre Pederneiras till Sherdog. ”His injuries had already healed almost completely, but his right foot was very swollen. Today, during his first sparring workout, he couldn’t plant his right foot because of the pain,” Pederneiras told Sherdog.com on Tuesday. “Because of his and our overwhelming desire that this fight against Edgar would happen, we tried to push it a bit, but we talked after practice and saw that he wasn’t able to train for the fight. We would like the fight [to be] postponed but the opponent kept.”
Det har skulle ha varit den andra gången som Aldo gick en match i Rio under UFCs banner. Den första gången han gjorde det så besegrade han Chad Mendes i en övertygande knockout, för att sedan kasta sig ur oktagonen och fira med sina landsmän i publiken. Detta är inte säkert att det kommer ske för en andra gång, men hans motståndare vill han fortfarande att det är Edgar.
“I apologize to my fans for not being able to fight at UFC 153, something I really wanted,” säger Aldo. ”It was a huge thrill to defend this belt at the last event in the city, and it would be even more wonderful to do it again now, against an opponent like Frank Edgar. I tried everything until the last second to be inside the Octagon, but it didn’t happen. Hopefully the UFC keeps the opponent and postpones this meeting, because I really want to face him.”
