Allan Oliveira/Sherdog.com
On Saturday, Jose Aldo held
court for family, friends and the media at Upper Arena in Rio de
Janeiro in a celebration of his legendary career after announcing
his retirement at UFC 315
on May 10.
Hosted by Thales
Leites, the former
UFC and
WEC featherweight champion recalled memorable moments, listened
to testimonies from those close to him and answered questions from
the press. When asked by Sherdog.com if his retirement was really
definitive and if any fight would make him change his mind, Aldo
didn’t hesitate.
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“There’s no fight that will make me come back,” he said. “I don’t
want this for myself anymore. I have other goals, now much more on
the personal side. I have the goal of giving lectures. I can’t say
much more here. I want to study, qualify myself and do other things
too. I see myself still helping my friends with the experience I
have, with all the technique I learned throughout all this time.
But I also have goals like making my daughter’s dream come true,
making my son a soccer player, a future star.”
The
Nova Uniao stalwart said he wouldn’t encourage any of his
children to follow in his footsteps in MMA.
“No, on the contrary, I don’t want any of my children fighting MMA
because, in addition to the pressure of being a fighter, he will be
compared to me,” Aldo said. “He may even be a good fighter, but
they will always want him to be at my level. They will demand too
much of him.”
Andre “Dede” Pederneiras, who Aldo calls his “second father,” was
responsible for two of the most emotional moments of the ceremony
that celebrated his protege’s career. The first occured when he was
called to sit next to Aldo at the beginning of the ceremony.
Pederneiras, who was moved to tears, had to compose himself before
starting his farewell speech.
“We are here to end a successful career that all of Brazil knows,
that the whole world knows,” Pederneiras said. “After so many
years, so many victories, some defeats and an incredible success,
today marks many years of hard work, much suffering and much joy.
What most people can see is the struggle on the day and the result,
but no one knows how much suffering there was to get there. I have
seen many give up at the beginning or halfway through, but Junior
gave it his all and managed to get where he is now.”
Pederneiras was choked up as he gave his tribute and struggled to
contain his emotions as he received a standing ovation from the
audience.
Aldo is just one of the thousands of underprivileged boys from all
over Brazil who Pederneiras has opened the doors of his academy to
over the past 30 years. Asked by a journalist present at the press
conference about the importance of professionals like him providing
opportunities for talents who cannot afford to pay, Pederneiras
received another ovation at the end of the press conference after
an affectionate hug to his main pupil.
“I sincerely hope that many more Pederneiras appear throughout
Brazil creating opportunities for boys like Aldo to dream of being
champions,” he said