Jose Aldo's coach, Andre Pederneiras, believes that his fighter may have been somewhat overconfident going into his encounter with Conor McGregor at UFC 194.
Speaking to Brazilian MMA site Combate, Pederneiras said that such was the level of Aldo's conditioning, it may have led to an amount of hubris slipping into his thought process.
I wouldn’t say anxious. Maybe overconfident, because he was really well.
He was so confident in the victory he (thought) ‘I’ll throw (my hand) and will catch him’. It’s a split-second decision. Or you attack, or you get out. He decided to attack, and the other guy threw a counter to defend. He attacked, but moving in a way to stop (Aldo’s) attack.
Pederneiras feels that there was an element of luck in the decisive punch from McGregor.
How can you say a superchampion like Aldo made a wrong decision? If you analyse the fight, Aldo threw the first straight, a fake straight, and McGregor threw his punch and it wouldn’t land on Aldo’s chin, but on his head. But Aldo moves up, moves his chin up, and (the punch) lands on his chin. McGregor wanted to land on his head. And with Aldo moving up, McGregor can’t say he calculated to hit right there.
He will say this, but it’s something hard to say, especially because if Aldo goes in and throws his punch, it wouldn’t have landed. However, he was happy. Let’s say it wasn’t a lucky punch, he programmed that, but the way it connected on his chin when he moved forward, I think it was lucky.
On the subject of an immediate rematch, Pederneiras believes it wrong that some - like Ronda Rousey - are being touted for prompt opportunities to regain their belts but his fighter is not.
Speculation recently has been that McGregor's next fight will likely be against lightweight title holder Rafael dos Anjos.
I can’t see Aldo not fighting for a belt or not in an immediate rematch. It wouldn’t be fair if that doesn’t happen, but happen to others. ‘There’s no immediate rematch for anyone’, cool, we know what the rule is. ‘(There’s rematch) because she’s blond and sells well’? I’ll dye Aldo’s hair. Right?
I don’t see other scenario than a new fight, so we can really have a fight. In my head, what happened wasn’t a fight, just a punch that landed and ended it quickly.
Pederneiras also divulged that they had prepared intensively to face McGregor's left hand by bringing four tall southpaws to train with Aldo.
Translation via MMAFighting.com
Picture credit: Ramsey Cardy / SPORTSFILE
