Just one day after Jose Aldo’s win at UFC 163, things got heated again between the featherweight champion and Anthony Pettis, who was previously set to challenge him in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday night.
A knee injury forced "Showtime" to leave the card, and he was replaced by Chan Sung Jung. It took only a month for the UFC to announce Pettis' next fight, taking T.J. Grant’s place in the next lightweight title fight on Aug. 31, at UFC 164, when he rematches Benson Henderson.
Andre Pederneiras, Jose Aldo’s coach, who believes in conspiracy theories, said in an interview to radio show "Mundo da Luta" on Sunday that Pettis’ injury never happened.
"In my opinion, [Pettis] never got hurt," Pederneiras said. "He realized he’d never make weight (at 145 pounds), that it wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be."
Pettis, who’s coming off back-to-back "Knockout of the Night" wins over Donald Cerrone and Joe Lauzon, denied Andre’s claims when contacted by MMAFighting.com.
"It’s stupid of him to say something like that," Pettis said through his jiu-jitsu coach Diego Moraes. "It was a dream fight for me. My injury was real and the UFC took me from the fight."
Pederneiras hopes that Pettis defeats Henderson on Aug. 31 then moves down to fight Aldo at the 145-pound division, and that’s Showtime's plans as well.
"I hope to win my next fight and fight Aldo at 145 pounds," Pettis confirmed.