Credit: DaveMandel/Sherdog.com
Credit:Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com
Credit: DaveMandel/Sherdog.com
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After 10 months away from the Octagon due to injury,
Brazilian Ketlen
Vieira will face an added challenge for her return against
Sijara
Eubanks on Saturday at UFC
253.
Vieira’s coach, Andre
Pederneiras, tested positive for COVID-19 upon their arrival in
Abu Dhabi this week. Because Pederneiras and Vieira traveled to the
Yas Island on different flights (the coach traveled commercially
while Vieira arrived on a flight chartered by the promotion), the
UFC did not remove the bantamweight from the card.
Pederneiras, who will have to remain isolated in his Abu Dhabi
hotel for 14 days, explained his strange case to Sherdog.com on
Wednesday.
“Actually I had a positive serological test on May 21. One
week latter I did another blood test and it came back negative. I
kept in quarantine and 14 days later I repeated the test and
it came negative again, so the doctors started to think it was
a false positive case,” Pederneiras said. “Last Wednesday I did a
test in Brazil and it came back negative so I traveled on Saturday
normally. But on the flight to Abu Dhabi I started to feel the
first symptoms (fever and headache). When I arrived here the first
PCR test came back positive, which confirmed that the first test in
May was a false positive.
“I´m feeling better now and I´m pretty confident that Ketlen will
win that fight,” he continued. “Even changing opponents in short
notice, but Sijara has a pretty similar style, so that will not
affect our camp. Ketlen is coming in great shape.”
Vieira began her professional MMA career with 10 consecutive
triumphs, including notable victories over Sara McMann
and Cat
Zingano in the UFC. She suffered her first defeat at UFC 245
this past December, when she was knocked out in the opening stanza
by Irene
Aldana. Eubanks, meanwhile, is coming off back-to-back decision
triumphs over Sarah Moras
and Julia
Avila.
Rafael dos
Anjos at Nova Uniao: The leader of Nova Uniao also
briefly discussed the camp of the special guest Rafael dos
Anjos, who will face Islam
Makhachev at UFC 254 in October.
“Rafal is such a great athlete, very professional and our team is a
great place for him,” Pederneiras said. “We have dozens of good
lightweight sparring partners for him, including Jose Aldo,
Leonardo
Santos, Hacran Dias,
Felipe Olivieiri, [Valmir
Lazaro] and [others] from that division to help him. We also
brought some reinforcements to help him play Makhachev´s game.
But that’s a secret, I can’t tell you who they are.”
