There’s a method to the madness for Andre
Pederneiras. By all accounts from those that know him, he was
just trying to get the most out of his athlete.
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The Nova Uniao leader explained his motivational message to
Ketlen
Vieira prior to the fifth round of her UFC Fight Night 206
headlining bout against Holly Holm
this past weekend. Vieira would go on to win a highly controversial
split decision.
“When the corner is not sure if his fighter is winning clearly, he
must tell her that she is losing in order to make his fighter
attack, and that’s what I did between Rounds 4 and 5 when I told
Ketlen that she was losing three rounds to one and she
needed a knockout or submission to get the win,” Pederneiras
told Sherdog.com. “I’ve been cornering my athletes for 30 years,
and countless times I was sure we were winning and we lost, so
now I have changed [my approach]. But when I got home and saw the
fight again, I have no doubt Ketlen won Rounds 2,3 and 4.”
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Pederneiras believes that Vieira has done enough to be next in line
to face the winner of the bantamweight title bout between Julianna
Pena and Amanda
Nunes at UFC 277.
“It would be the most fair decision,” he said. “I don’t
have any preference between Amanda or Julianna,. If
Ketlen does what she is doing in the academy lately, she can beat
any woman in the world in that division.”
Pederneiras also addressed the next move for Jose Aldo, who
has won three straight bouts in the UFC’s bantamweight
division.
“Aljamain [Sterling] called him out and Aldo
accepted immediately, but we need to understand that the
[rankings] will decide the next challenger. It is likely that
[T.J.
Dillashaw] will be the next contender, so we are also listening
to other proposals from the UFC, like Dominick [Cruz], [Merab]
Dvalishvili or Henry
Cejudo, who could return for a fight against Aldo.
Pederneiras in particular finds the potential of a Cejudo fight
appealing.
“That´s a great match up for Aldo, who has some of the best
takedown defense in UFC history and is a much better striker than
Cejudo,” he said.