Pederneiras (in red) explains Aldo's weight cut (second from left to right) for UFC 179. Photo: Disclosure/UFC
This Friday (24), the eve of UFC 179, all the attention of the MMA world is focused on the scales located in the Maracanãzinho gym, in Rio de Janeiro, where the official weigh-in for the event will take place. featherweight champion, José Aldo, just like your opponent, Chad Mendes, you will have to pass the weight test without exceeding the category limit, which is 65,7 kg.
Due to recent events involving Aldo's team, Nova União, the day's event is full of expectations. In August, another fighter on the team, Renan Barao, starred in an episode that will go down in history: on the eve of UFC 177, when he was due to compete for the bantamweight belt, the fighter fell ill during the weight cut and was taken to the hospital, leaving him out of the fight the following day.
The leader of Nova União, Dedé Pederneiras, guaranteed that the weight cutting work done with Aldo for UFC 179 is different in relation to the one seen with Barão two months ago. “We don’t make the bathtub with alcohol. We make a normal bathtub, with hot water with just cream or coarse salt. In Barão's case, we were sometimes using it with alcohol, other times not. As there was this type of alcohol in Sacramento [USA, location of UFC 177], which has a very large distillation, we ended up using it. Here in Brazil we don't even have this alcohol. We stopped doing the sauna many years ago. Today 99% of our athletes only take a bath. This way the athlete is less worn out”, explained Pederneiras.
VIDEO: Watch the weigh-in for UFC 179 starting at 16 p.m.
The coach believes that the episode involving Barão was an accident on the road, as he considers that there are no problems with the method used by Nova União to cut weight. “We believe it was a fatality. At the gym we have trained athletes to fight 870 times and this was the first time this had happened to us. That's why we believe it was a fatality. Aldo has already had 25 fights, we've always done it the same way and there's never been a problem. The Baron had fought 30 times and had never had a problem. Just like all the other athletes, our athletes never had any problems”, pondered Pederneiras.
Therefore, the coach predicts that Aldo will not have any difficulties making weight this Friday. “He is an athlete who fights at around 73 kg maximum. In other words, six, seven extra kilos. That's how he likes to fight and feels good. He complains a lot about losing weight. But why doesn't he like it, since he has no difficulty losing. Preparation began a week before. Day after day, he has to achieve a certain amount of weight loss to be right at the time of weigh-in,” he said.
[vox id=”25957″]
Comments