‘The greatest featherweight of all-time’: UFC’s Jose Aldo gets emotional sendoff in Brazil

Guilherme Cruz https://ift.tt/mxsD7Pe

Jose Aldo hugs Andre Pederneiras | Guilherme Cruz, MMA Fighting

RIO DE JANEIRO — In 2022, the Brazilian MMA community paid tribute to the great Jose Aldo, who had unceremoniously announced his retirement from MMA to transition to boxing. He would return to the UFC cage two years later to resume his career, and that cycle has come to an end earlier this month in Montreal, Canada.

Jose Aldo Junior, who first entered the UFC cage in Toronto, again travelled to the Great White North for his final chapter. In times when veterans Anthony Smith and Michelle Waterson got emotional in-cage send offs, it felt weird to see a legend like Aldo lay down his gloves without a proper tribute.

Seven days later, his Nova Uniao peers, led by coach Andre Pederneiras, prepared a well-deserved tribute in the city he was crowned king.

“It’s quite emotional for me,” Aldo said while fighting back tears. “But it’s the law of life, too.”

Sitting on a couch at the enter of an octagon at Upper Arena, Nova Uniao’s training center in Rio de Janeiro, Aldo heard beautiful words from teammates, friends, coaches, wife and daughter. A video tribute that could have been aired on the big screens of the Centre Bell was instead shown to a few dozen closed ones.

“I’m very emotional — since the fight, really,” Aldo’s wife Viviane Pereira said, with Jose Aldo III on her arms with Joana sitting by Aldo’s feet. “I’m with Aldo for 20 years now. I got to live it all, from the first loss to Luciano Azevedo over in Manaus. I remember he was battling high fever, but we had no money at home. We lived in the favela and he said, ‘I have to fight because I need that money.’ After that, he said, ‘I lost because I went after the money. From this day, I’ll never chase money.’ And that’s how it was done. From that day, we never fought for money, but money came for us.”

Guilherme Cruz, MMA Fighting

Jose Aldo hugs his daughter, Joana

“We’ve achieved so much more,” she continued. “There was a movie made after him, of his life. Two beautiful kids we have. A career with highs and lows. Only I know what we went through at home. Only I know the painful part. I protected him from everything. All he had to do was fight. All the rest, the problems and any difficulties, it was up to ‘Dede’ [Pederneiras] and I. … Most people only see the good part, but it was very hard to get where he’s got.

“And I’m proud of you,” Pereira said while looking at Aldo’s teary eyes. “You have no idea how proud I am. To see where you came, to look back at that skinny kid I met and today conquered the world and the people.”

Pereira was in tears. Joana, who turns 13 in July, was too emotional to say a few works on the mic.

Pederneiras, usually a stoic figure referred to as “father” by Aldo, had a hard time finding the right words to describe his most famous protégé.

“We’re here today to finish a very successful career that the whole Brazil knows. Actually, that the whole world knows,” Pederneiras said. “Many victories, some defeats, and an absurd success — especially when you look back at the kid that got here. It’s hard. Today we complete many years of hard work, suffering, and joy. What most people see is the day of the fight, the green or red on Sherdog, but no one knows the suffering up until that moment. Not only Aldo, I think every MMA fighters goes through that. But we’re talking about a man that came here with the goal to compete in jiu-jitsu and over the course of that journey we switched focus on the team to MMA. We had a dream. A dream for more. We weren’t satisfied being only jiu-jitsu champions.”

Aldo made the transition to MMA in a time where Nova Uniao already had more established names in the featherweight division. Wagnney Fabiano, a jiu-jitsu great and brother of Leonardo Santos, became the IFL champion before Aldo joined WEC. It was more natural that he would have the preference in a run for the belt, but Aldo’s phenomenal run was just too incredible to ignore.

Alexandre Franca Nogueira, Jonathan Brookins, Rolando Perez, Chris Mickle, Cub Swanson. They all crumbled in front of that knockout machine from Manaus. Mike Brown, the man who dethroned WEC star Urijah Faber, had no answer for Aldo. He was a kid destined for glory

The Jose Aldo Era was on. For an entire decade, that 5’7” man who moved to Rio de Janeiro to pursue a dream of becoming a football player would rule the world with heavy punches and unstoppable leg kicks.

And he was confident. Before featherweights were even allowed in the UFC, and before he even got the belt in WEC, Aldo knew he was great.

Guilherme Cruz, MMA Fighting

Thales Leites and Jose Aldo

“I remember one day he gave an interview, when Georges St-Pierre was the man, and he was asked who was the best fighter in the world. He said, ‘I’m the best in the world,’” teammate Thales Leites said. “I saw that interview and was like, ‘Are you crazy?’ And he just said back, ‘Well, I am the best.’ He didn’t hesitate. ‘I’m the best in the world. I’m telling you that.’ That’s confidence, and you saw the result.”

“There were internet forums at the time and people got all over me,” Aldo said of the online backlash. “I was heavily criticized, people said I was arrogant, but I said I was [the best]. ‘Be sure that those who are throwing stones at me, tomorrow they will say I’m the best.’ I had that confidence from day one. I was able to conquer everything I set out to do in my life.”

Aldo was the arrow, Pederneiras was the bow, and that duo was just too damn good. Aldo replicated the WEC success under the brighter lights of the UFC, an unmatched rise with seven title defenses in the new promotion. Adding to his previous three title victories on the blue canvas, it’s an unparalleled feat that those who succeeded him failed to replicate.

“It’s already hard to become champion of the world’s biggest organization. To hold the title is even harder,” Pederneiras said. “You become the target. The whole division is after you. If you blink twice, they see it. You move two steps to the left side every time you throw a strike, they all see it. Every opponent or more prepared than the other to catch you. It’s not easy to stay [at the top] for such a long time. After 10 years, we had a loss [to Conor McGregor] that could have been a win. He threw a punch and the guy came thousands of a second first, and that decided the fight.

“But he kept believing, and became champion again. It’s impossible not to say Aldo is the greatest featherweight of all-time. And forever will be. Even if someone manages to surpass what he’s done, he was the first.”

Revisionists may disagree on day, refute all they want, but Aldo’s name will go down in history as a myth. Over the shoulders of his people he reigned, the King of Rio.

“There’s nothing left to be said,” Pederneiras said. “You have here in front of you a man that came from nothing, and look where he’s got. … Few managed to do what he’s done. Few will do. To have a superchampion with such a long reign, only the king of the people.”

Guilherme Cruz, MMA Fighting

Jose Aldo and coach Andre Pederneiras

from MMA Fighting - All Posts https://ift.tt/P8tjZ12