Jose Aldo manager suggests catchweight for Anthony Pettis fight
Alright, so maybe we're not so close to getting the Jose Aldo vs. Anthony Pettis super fight after all. Just days after all principles involved (Aldo, Pettis, UFC president Dana White) seemed to agree that the fight needed to happen, comments from both fighters' managers would appear to put at least a temporary kink in those plans.
At the UFC 169 post event press conference, White said that should Aldo move up to fight the lightweight champion Pettis at 155 pounds, he'd need to vacate his own featherweight title. At the time, Aldo stayed silent but recently, his coach and manager Andre Pederneiras floated the idea of a 150 pound catchweight limit for the super fight.
"(A catchweight) would be interesting for both," Pederneiras told MMA Fighting.
"They would keep the belts and do the fight everybody wants to see. Nobody wants to take the other’s title, we want to see the fight and do a great show for everybody. Aldo would move up a little, Pettis cuts a little, and it’s good for everybody."
Pettis' manager Mike Roberts, however, is not so keen on the idea.
"It's not an option that was given to us," Roberts told MMA Fighting
"[The UFC] wants the fight at 155 pounds."
"The way we understand it is that Aldo doesn't want give up his featherweight title, so fighting Pettis is not an option at this point."
It is interesting that Roberts isn't similarly in favor of protecting Pettis' champion status with a catch weight belt. He says that Pettis wants to fight only contenders at 155 pounds when the injured champ returns to action.
"We're interested in Anthony defending his belt against the top guys at 155," Roberts said. "If Aldo doesn't want to fight for the belt, we'll fight someone else."
If that happens, Roberts presumably hopes that Also will go ahead and fight someone else at featherweight - namely another client of his, top contender Chad Mendes.
Do you care what weight Aldo vs. Pettis happens at? Let us know in the comments section.
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