Penick's Take
PENICK: False narrative around Jose Aldo's exit from UFC 189 harmful, irresponsible, and disrespectful to long-reigning Champ
Jul 3, 2015 - 4:10:36 PM PENICK: False narrative around Jose Aldo's exit from UFC 189 harmful, irresponsible, and disrespectful to long-reigning Champ

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

There's a harmful and irresponsible false narrative permeating around the continued hype of UFC 189, and it's this idea that Jose Aldo pulled out of the event despite being "medically cleared" to compete on the card.

It's an idea that came from the UFC and the UFC alone, but has continued to gain legs with every subsequent Conor McGregor interview that makes its way to the public. It was prevalent again on Thursday night, with Conan O'Brien framing a question to guest McGregor about the fight with the following:

"Jose Aldo backed out. Was going to fight you, backed out. Said it was due to a rib injury, but he's been cleared to fight by a doctor. What do you think happened?"

That set up a response from McGregor on a tee (which, to be fair, was the intent):

"The man is running scared. I cannot force a man who is not willing to step in [to] fight. I cannot force him into the Octagon to face me. But really I cannot hold any grudge towards him because I would not want to face me either. I was going to destroy him... He has been medically cleared to fight. Doctors have looked at him. Examined him. He went and saw a gynecologist and it turns out it's just a little period pain."

While some of this is expected trash talk, it's an issue to have Aldo unfairly painted in that light when it's not an accurate representation of the facts. Initial reports out of Brazil were that Aldo's ribs were broken, and it was the UFC who released a statement saying they'd gotten word otherwise from "several doctors."

"In light of recent reports regarding the status of UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo, UFC has received official medical confirmation from several doctors that Aldo did not suffer a broken rib," the UFC's statement read at the time. Following a review of the scans, it has been determined that the champion suffered a bone bruise to his rib and cartilage injury during training."

Despite that statement, the damage done was significantly more than a "bone bruise," and Aldo's camp and his Brazilian doctors didn't agree with the assessment put forth by the still-unnamed doctors who allegedly examined his records. What makes that even more questionable are the images released by Aldo this week in an attempt to get his side into the public.

Look at them again:





The bright spots in the x-ray are a clear sign of a break, and the damage is clear in the MRI as well. So again, the question becomes: who are these doctors who supposedly cleared Aldo to fight? The UFC hasn't named them, and doesn't appear eager to name them either. Regardless, these nameless experts gave an assessment that doesn't seem to mesh with the realities of Aldo's actual injury, and yet the narrative being pushed is that he's pulling out despite being fine.

It's a problem brought on by the UFC, though one with a few moving parts. For starters, Dana White's demeanor while alongside McGregor on ESPN to announce the change to Chad Mendes was dour, and he made some comments that were in line with thinking Aldo was cleared before and shouldn't have been pulling out. While that seemed to be the subtext of his comments, along with claims thrown about that Aldo was being offered more money to take the fight, Aldo's manager Andre Pederneiras says that isn't the case, and says that they simply disagreed with the assessment from the UFC's doctors.

"There was no pressure and no offer of any money by the UFC for Aldo to fight," Pederneiras said (via Josh Gross on Twitter). "The only disagreement we had was in diagnosis of the injury, between doctors we consulted in Brazil, and American doctors.

"Actually, Dana demonstrated genuine concern for Aldo's health."

That last comment doesn't seem to match up to White's previous comments, but should have received the most consideration.

There's no benefit to keeping this narrative going now that the fight is off. If they were trying to push behind the scenes to keep the fight on even as he was hurt, it's one thing to try to claim he was good to go in order to make it happen. However, when it's clear that the assessment pushed in their statement isn't accurate, all they're accomplishing by continuing to push this idea is harming Aldo's image. There's a segment of the fanbase that now may legitimately believe Aldo isn't fighting despite being cleared, and when that's simply not the truth it's only harming the Champion.

Now, it's not entirely out of character for that to be the UFC's intention here, either. Aldo's been outspoken against the organization, this was a major fight for them with a ton of money poured into the promotion, and him pulling out of the fight is a significant detriment to the bottom line on this event. That it's also not the first time he's been forced to delay a fight due to injury certainly doesn't help his case.

However, he's the long-reigning Champion for a reason, and has felled absolutely every other challenge that's been put in front of him in his WEC and UFC run. At some point, more respect is warranted for who he is and what he's done to this point, and to continue allowing this line of thinking about UFC 189 to run rampant is quite simply unfair to him and bordering on vindictive.

Is it good that he got injured? Of course not. But he's the best in the division. He trains hard to remain the best in the division, and in this unfortunate instance that led to a freak accident. There's nothing more and nothing less to it. It happened, it's real, and debilitating enough that he couldn't fight. McGregor and the UFC have to move forward, and McGregor himself needs to put his concentration more to Chad Mendes. If he fails to do that, the big money fight with Aldo will be off the table entirely.