Aldo and Mendes face each other at a promotional event for UFC 179. Photo: Reproduction/YouTube
The gaze between José Aldo e Chad Mendes held at a promotional event last Tuesday (26) caught fire in Rio de Janeiro (RJ). The Brazilian, UFC featherweight champion, pushed his challenger and had to be restrained by security guards shortly afterwards. The episode drew attention, but Aldo admitted that the move was premeditated in order to further promote the fight, which will be the main attraction of UFC 179, on October 25th.
Aldo revealed that, together with his main coach, Dedé Pederneiras, he had come up with a strategy to “spice up” things with Mendes, but that he was not happy with the result, as it does not represent his real personality. “We were talking to Dedé in a meeting about how we could improve the promotion of our fights. It's part of the show. But I told Dedé afterwards that it's not my style. It wasn't set up, we were exchanging provocations and this happened. We tried to spice things up a little, but that’s it”, said Aldo at a press conference, in an excerpt reproduced by the North American website “MMA Fighting”.
The Brazilian stated that, despite not regretting what happened, he will do his utmost to prevent it from happening again. “I had never pushed anyone before during a stare. I should have behaved better. I'm not saying I regret it – it was something that made people talk about it, but it's not who I am. It won't happen again.”
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