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your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. Ever the optimist,
Nova Uniao founder Andre
Pederneiras had plenty to say about his students, namely one
former champion who has been with him for many years. With many fighters scheduled at upcoming Ultimate Fighting Championship fight cards, the
leader of Nova Uniao gave an exclusive interview to Sherdog on
Wednesday. Like always, “Dede” was happy to talk openly about all
subjects ranging from his team to his involvement with the Shooto
Brazil promotion.
He first wanted to lead off with his star pupil, Jose Aldo, who
has big things in mind for the bantamweight division. Former
featherweight champion Aldo turned 35 earlier in the month, and he
is riding a two-fight win streak over Marlon Vera
and Pedro
Munhoz. Aldo is currently the #7 bantamweight on the
Sherdog Official Rankings, and both he and his coach had no
shortage of names in mind.
“Of course, our main intention was to face [former champion T.J.]
Dillashaw,” the coach began. “But we understand that he [earned]
the chance to fight for the belt next. He also had surgery on his
knee and will not return anytime soon. Aldo is coming from two
straight wins and wants to be active; I think he deserves to face
someone over him in the rankings. Rob Font said
before the fight between Aldo and Munhoz that it was a very
interesting combat to him, [as] if Munhoz [won] it would be great
revenge to him, [and] if Aldo [won], [it] would be the biggest name
he has ever faced. But what happened is that after Aldo won, he
didn’t talk anything, but we already asked him for December.”
The former featherweight king, who is now finding success at 135
pounds after reigning over the 145-pound category for years, has
found himself as the topic of conversation of many greats over the
years. Recently, Khabib
Nurmagomedov weighed in on Aldo, and even went so far as to
claim that Aldo’s current run is for money, and that Aldo would
never hold another title. “Dede” had some thoughts about
Nurmagomedov’s comments.
“Khabib has always been an example of someone who speaks little and
does a lot,” Pederneiras admitted, “but after he decided to retire
and lost all the media he had for his winning, he started to say
bad things not only about fighters, even ring girls he attacked. I
think his goal is to remain in the media. But he [doesn’t] need to
say those things.
“Actually, he refused a fight with Aldo,” the head coach continued.
“It happened when he was going to fight Tony
Ferguson and Aldo had defeated Frankie
Edgar. [Conor] McGregor was the lightweight champion by that
time, and we thought it could be a great way to get the rematch. If
Aldo [beat] Khabib, Conor couldn’t deny that. Unfortunately,
Khabib’s team did not accept the fight. Please don’t get me wrong.
I’m not saying Aldo would knock out or submit Khabib, I’m just
saying that Nurmagomedov had the opportunity to prove everything he
is saying now about Aldo, and he was the one who didn’t accept our
call. Names like Aldo, Anderson [Silva] and [Georges St.
Pierre] must have their legacy respected. Aldo is fighting MMA
for 17 years, [and] still among [the] top five, he did 37 fights,
nine title defenses if we count WEC and UFC, challenging himself in
two weight divisions.”
Recently, several former UFC greats have transitioned over to
boxing to end their fighting careers. Aldo once considered this as
well, in the midst of his title run in 2016, but he was stopped
from pursuing this path.
“When he defeated Frankie for the second time and we realized he
wouldn’t have a rematch with McGregor, we asked [UFC President]
Dana [White] to release him for a Boxing superfight, but Dana
refused. Right in the sequence [where] he fought Holloway and
lost,” Pederneiras lamented.
At Nova Uniao, Aldo was joined in the camp by former lightweight
champion Rafael dos
Anjos, who transitioned away from Kings MMA, the Evolve MMA
camp in Singapore and one he started for himself. A firm believer
that “iron sharpens iron,” dos Anjos decided to team up with Aldo,
Pederneiras and the rest of the greats at the Brazilian team. Dos
Anjos has a fight lined up at UFC 267 on Oct. 30, where he will
take on Islam
Makhachev in a high-stakes lightweight affair.
“Rafael moved to Rio, initially for one year,” Pederneiras said.
“He is focused on getting a title shot.”
Regarding the fight itself, Pederneiras noted that Judo is one of
the main focuses of dos Anjos’ camp to beat the Russian
International Master of Sport in combat sambo.
“If you analyze all those sambo guys, they go so well in MMA,
because sambo is a mix of judo and wrestling,” the head coach
discussed. “When they face wrestlers, they defend very well and
take them down using judo techniques; if they get good judo guys,
they use wrestling. When you see Islam fighting, his best throws
are not wrestling techniques, but Judo. Most people who tried to
wrestle with Islam or Khabib failed being thrown with Judo
techniques. [In the past] Rafael trained wrestling so much in USA,
[but now] we are prioritizing Judo throws in this camp.”
Pederneiras has grown a familiarity with Russia and Russian
organizers as he trains his fighters to face off against their
fighters. With the pandemic raging on in Brazil, as well as an
economic crisis going on in the country, “Dede” explained that it
is almost impracticable for him to promote Shooto events. Pederneiras and his team have worked
with Shooto and the Legacy Fighting Alliance in recent memory. Of
note, he helped facilitate the LFA into Rio de Janeiro in July,
where the organization staged LFAs 111 and 112 on the same
weekend.
“Unfortunately, the financial support Globo TV used to give us in
order to make the events is not possible anymore, so my goal now is
to make new partnerships and take my athletes to other events,”
Pederneiras stated. “It was a great experience to support [LFA
head] Ed Soares in two editions of LFA here in my arena. He loved
that, and intends to make other editions in 2022.
“I’m traveling to Russia next month,” he continued. “We hope to
bring a Russian promotion to Rio too. Promoting events is extremely
necessary to me in order to produce news fighters. I reinvest
almost all money I make with my fighters in the new generation.
Today I have around 60 professionals training in [Nova Uniao], if I
have only 15 of them fighting [in] international events, the other
45 unemployed won’t be coming every day to be beaten up by the 15,
so I need to have events to give opportunities to the other 35 to
show how they are improving and how they also deserve an
opportunity. If you ask me if I like to make Shooto I’ll answer,
for sure, no. But I need to make the show. If I had 50 events in
Brazil to spread my athletes, for sure, I wouldn’t make it.”
Another one of those aforementioned professionals, Eduardo
Dantas, is looking to make a comeback after leaving Bellator MMA in 2019. The former bantamweight champion
competed under the Bellator banner 15 times over the years, and he
parted ways with the league after losing three of four. A
first-round submission in July at a Shooto Brazil card showed there
may yet be something left in the tank of the 32-year-old nicknamed
“Dudu.”
“I truly believe Dantas has the face [for] UFC,” his coach
expressed. “Great striker, top black belt, very good in selling
fights. I have no doubt he will be one of the stars of the
bantamweight division. I’m just waiting for the UFC call. But while
it does not happen, I’m trying to put him in good events that don’t
ask for long contracts. But our goal is to take him to UFC. Dudu is
only 32 years old and already fought MMA 29 times, being a multiple
time Bellator champion. I have no doubt his time will come.”
