UFC
Jose Aldo shoves Chad Mendes at UFC 179 media event, says he "tried to spice things up"
Aug 27, 2014 - 8:50:03 PM Jose Aldo shoves Chad Mendes at UFC 179 media event, says he "tried to spice things up"

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

UFC Featherweight Champ Jose Aldo took a cue from Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier this week, shoving challenger Chad Mendes at a media event on Tuesday for their UFC 179 headlining event in October in Brazil.

Unfortunately, where the Jones-Cormier incident was an organic reaction between two heated rivals, Aldo admitted on Wednesday that he was simply attempting to raise the profile of the fight.

"We were talking to Andre [Pederneiras] in a meeting about how we could improve our fight promotions. It's part of the show," Aldo commented to media in Brazil (via Guilherme Cruz at MMAFighting.com). "But I told Andre after [the staredown] that it's not my style. It was not staged, we were talking [trash] to each other and it happened... We (Aldo and Pederneiras) tried to spice things up, but that's it."

"I've never pushed anyone during a staredown before. I should behave better. I'm not saying I regret it. We did it, it was good. There was a good thing about it that people are now talking about it, but it's not who I am. It won't happen again."

Penick's Analysis: Saying "it's part of the show" just kills any authenticity there could have been from that moment on Tuesday, and having contrived incidents like that won't sell the fight any better if fans don't buy into it. The fight itself remains a really good fight, and there's been some legitimate back and forth verbally, but doing something out of character intentionally for the goal of "selling the fight," and then immediately letting on is just not a good way to actually "sell" a fight.