Despite his rib injury, the UFC tried to force Jose Aldo to take part in the main event of UFC 189, according to the champion’s wife, Vivianne Pereira.
The long-standing featherweight champion was forced to withdraw from his original scheduled bout with the Notorious in July after sustaining a rib injury during a sparring session.
Pereira spoke to Combate to discuss the injury, although she may have inadvertently revealed some information McGregor will may find extremely useful, namely, the location of the rib which was fractured.
“Aldo was really injured, there’s video of it. The guy threw a spinning kick, hit his left rib and broke it. ‘Dede’ [Andre Pederneiras, Nova Uniao head coach] called me half an hour after going to the hospital to ask me to stay calm because they didn’t know if it was broken.”
“We didn’t want to frighten anyone because we didn’t know if he would fight or not. After a while, ‘Dede’ calls me and say it’s broken and he would need three or four weeks to get back. It was two weeks before the fight, we were desperate.”
She explained that the UFC’s president, Dana White, attempted to stop the champion from pulling out despite knowing that he was injured.
“And Dana calling, talking about numbers. ‘It’s millions of dollars that you are losing. You have to fight. You never made this in your life’.
“Junior trying everything, doing everything. But they didn’t want to announce it because who else would they put in the fight? They spent millions on the fight. How would they say he broke his rib? They didn’t want to admit, they held it back, threw that on us, and we were saying it was broken.”
A UFC official has since refuted the claims by Aldo’s wife, reports MMA Fighting:
“Jose’s health and safety were always a priority and we worked closely with he and his team to ensure that he had access to the best medical care and consultation after sustaining the injury. We respect and understand that he could not proceed with the fight at UFC 189 due to the injury. Both fighters have now arrived in Las Vegas for this historic event, and we’re excited that UFC 194 is just days away,”
