J. Aldo (photo) faces McGregor on December 12th. Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC
After spending a veritable fortune promoting the fight between José Aldo e Conor McGregor at UFC 189, the Ultimate organization ended up struggling when the Brazilian was injured weeks before the duel and was replaced by Chad Mendes. Now, on the eve of Aldo finally sharing the octagon against McGregor, the champion's wife, Vivianne Oliveira, said that president Dana White tried to pressure the man from Manaus to perform in July even though he was injured.
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“It was two weeks before the fight, we were desperate. A movie was playing. And Dana calling, talking about values: 'These are millions of dollars that you are losing. You have to fight. You've never won this in your life.' Junior tried everything, did infiltration, did everything. But they didn't want to release the note because otherwise they would put someone in the fight? They spent millions on the fight. How were they going to say he broke his rib? They didn't want to take over, they held back, they kept throwing it at us, and we said it was broken. The committee there wouldn't let him fight with a broken rib. He would have to take exams before fighting. We ourselves didn't want to say that it was broken, but we couldn't help but say it. Were we going to look like liars? It was a fight. They said it wasn’t broken, the doctor there said it wasn’t broken, and there was a fight”, said Vivianne, in an interview with the “Combate” channel website.
The wife also recalled how difficult the moments were before the decision to give up the fight for the Brazilian. “Life is not just about money, it’s a 10-year career to get there and be at the top. Maintaining yourself is not easy. We made a common decision, I felt really bad, he was really shaken, a lot of people had bought tickets, a lot of friends. He wanted to fight. We had to give the answer on a Friday. On Thursday night he said: 'I'm going to fight'. He was full of pain, he couldn't move, he was coughing and it hurt. (…) He couldn’t afford it. He tried everything, but it just didn't work. It was better to postpone and move on. This is not going to be what will shake us. It was really difficult, we suffered a lot. There were a lot of people calling, talking…”, he said.
After the postponement of the duel in July, José Aldo e Conor McGregor finally face each other next Saturday (12), in the main fight of UFC 194, in Las Vegas (USA). In addition to a personal reckoning between two of MMA's biggest rivals today, the duel will be valid for the unification of the interim and linear belts in the bantamweight division, with a weight limit of up to 66 kg.
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