Jose’ Aldo’s Coach Declined The Kenny Florian Fight

Added on Nov 05, 2010 by John Petit in

UFC & MMA

When we first heard of the possible Jose’ Aldo vs Kenny Florian fight, it was before the announcement of the WEC/UFC merger. In fact, many people just speculated that it was a one off fight, and they were trying to do something special for the New Years Day card. Now that some time has passed, and we now know Jose Aldo is defending his title against Josh Grispi, we are now hearing why the Kenny Florian fight fight never got signed.

Jose’ Aldo’s coach, Andre Pederneiras, is now saying they turned down the fight. According to Tatame.com, Apparently, They approached the UFC about doing a fight with Champion Frankie Edgar, in which Aldo would move up to 155 from 145. The UFC declined the match up, and made a counter offer. “A counter proposal was made for a fight between Kenny Florian and Aldo. They asked me about it and I was the first to say no. Aldo fighting a UFC champion, the 4th pound-for-pound, is one thing, but the counter proposal was not interesting” said Pederneiras.

This may sound insulting to someone who is a fan of Kenny Florian, but Kenny is coming off of a loss and is most likely not a top ten fighter. Pederneiras agreed saying “It’s not that Florian is not tough or anything. I think he’s an excellent athlete, but he’s coming from a loss and unfortunately for him he has never been a UFC champion and today is not in the top 10 pound-for-pound.” He was also quick to point out that this was not Aldo’s decision, “I was the one who said no, nobody else did. Jose Aldo wanted to fight, but I didn’t let him do it because this fight wouldn’t bring any advantage at all for us, regardless of if Florian is a great fighter or not.”

He said they were in no hurry to take a UFC fight, or a lightweight fight, but had they offered the right opponent they would have taken the fight. “If they offered us Sean Sherk in a situation like that, I’d have probably accepted it. He was a guy coming from a win and a former UFC champion. We didn’t deny the Florian fight for fear or anything; it was just not worth it.” Pederneiras said they were in no hurry to make a jump up in weight, because it was essentially inevitable. He concluded “Aldo is a very young kid and will move up to LW naturally.”

As mentioned, Jose’ Aldo will fight Josh Grispi at UFC 125. UFC 125: Resolution will take place on January 1, 2011 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. This fight will replace the initially scheduled Shane Carwin vs Roy Nelson. The fight was scrapped all together when Carwin was forced to pull out of the fight to have back surgery. Carwin had the surgery, and according to his manager at Magnetic Marketing Associates “Shane’s surgery was a success, and he is currently recuperating and is doing fine.” He is expected to be out 8-12 weeks at the minimum.