Det var först tänkt att Jose Aldo (25-1) skulle möta Conor McGregor (18-2) på UFC 189, men drog sig ur på grund av en revebensskada och nu berättar Aldo fru, Vivianne Pereira att Dana White pressade Aldo till att gå match på UFC 189 trots skadan.
Aldos fru berättar att det var två veckor före matchen som Aldo blev skadad under ett träningspass, men att Dana White hade ringt och sagt att Aldo skulle förlora miljoner och att han måste gå matchen trots skadan. Hon berättar också att ingen av dom ville berätta om skadan när Aldo genomgick läkarundersökningarna, då UFC hade lagt ner mycket pengar på att marknadsföra matchen.
”Aldo was really injured, there’s video of it,” berättade Pereira. ”The guy threw a spinning kick, hit his left rib and broke it. ‘Dede’ [Andre Pederneiras, Nova Uniao head coach] called me half an hour after going to the hospital to ask me to stay calm because they didn’t know if it was broken. We didn’t want to frighten anyone because we didn’t know if he would fight or not. After a while, ‘Dede’ calls me and say it’s broken and he would need three or four weeks to get back. It was two weeks before the fight, we were desperate.”
”And Dana calling, talking about numbers,” sa hon. ”‘It’s millions of dollars that you are losing. You have to fight. You never made this in your life’. Junior trying everything, doing everything. But they didn’t want to announce it because who else would they put in the fight? They spent millions on the fight. How would they say he broke his rib? They didn’t want to admit, they held it back, threw that on us, and we were saying it was broken.
”The commission wouldn’t let him fight with a broken rib. He would have to do exams before the fight. We wouldn’t want to say it was broken, but there was no other way. Would we turn ourselves into liars? It was a fight. Them saying it wasn’t broken, the doctor there saying it wasn’t broken, and there was this fight.”
En UFC-anställd nekar till att Aldo blev pressad till att gå match, då deras prioritering är deras fighters hälsa.
”Jose’s health and safety were always a priority and we worked closely with he and his team to ensure that he had access to the best medical care and consultation after sustaining the injury. We respect and understand that he could not proceed with the fight at UFC 189 due to the injury. Both fighters have now arrived in Las Vegas for this historic event, and we’re excited that UFC 194 is just days away,” a UFC official said.
Aldo drog sig ur matchen till slut, men innan det beslutet gick Aldo till sin klubb för att träna och se om det gick att träna trots skadan, men smärtan var för stor då Aldo knappt kunde röra sig berättar hans fru.
”We saw there was no way to fight,” sa Pereira. ”Life isn’t only about money, it’s 10 years of a career to get there and stay on top. Staying there isn’t easy. We made a decision, I was really bad, he was shaken. There were a lot of people buying tickets, a lot of friends. He wanted to fight. We had to give them an answer on Friday. ‘I will fight’.”
”He was in pain, he couldn’t move, coughing and feeling hurt,” berättade hon. ”He got up, packed his backpack and, by the time he got to the gym, ‘Dede’ asked ‘what are you doing here?’ He got ready, tried to do something and felt the pain. He cried of pain again. He couldn’t do it. He tried everything, but couldn’t do it. It was for the best to postpone and move on. It’s not going to shaken us. It was hard as hell. We suffered a lot.”
Foto: Patrick Jenkinson
