UFC
Jose Aldo's manager says it's "too soon" to commit to October date for Chad Mendes bout
Jul 24, 2014 - 2:50:46 PM Jose Aldo's manager says it's "too soon" to commit to October date for Chad Mendes bout

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Jose Aldo is working back from an injury that ultimately led to the cancellation of UFC 176 next month. Though the UFC would like his fight with Chad Mendes to happen in October, his manager Andre Pederneiras says it's too early to commit to that, and that they won't rush his return to make October happen.

"He's already felling better. He did some light training Monday and didn't feel anything," Pederneiras said in an interview with MMAFighting.com. "We will decide this week when he'll be able to train hard again and then we'll know if he can fight in October. He wants to fight as soon as possible, and it would be great to fight [in Rio] in October, but I don't know if that will work. It's too soon to give you an answer about fighting in October."

As for the possibility of the UFC creating an interim title if he can't compete by October, Pederneiras says the UFC needs to do the same for other divisions if that's what they want to do for Aldo.

"The UFC can do anything they want, actually," he said. "If they want to create two or three interim titles, they can do it. But I will also ask for an interim title for [Anthony] Pettis, who hasn't fought since August, and [Cain] Velasquez, who hasn't fought since October. I haven't heard any talks about interim title for those guys, so I don't see why an interim title for Aldo. It's unfair. The reason for creating an interim title is time, and Aldo is the one to fight most recently among these three."

Penick's Analysis: An interim title fight at featherweight would be ridiculous right now. He fought in February, and if he's going to be pushed past October it's probably not going to be by much. It would be akin to Bellator's Interim Light Heavyweight title that was widely criticized, and it's just not needed when a fighter is going to be fighting within a year. And Pederneiras has a point regarding Pettis and Velasquez having been out longer. Hopefully Aldo's able to fight by October, but no Interim Title fight is necessary at this point.