“(We) had a conversation with the UFC guys and suggested a fight between him and the 4th pound-for-pound (Frankie Edgar).”
“A counter proposal was made for a fight between Kenny Florian and Aldo. They asked me about it and I was the first to say no. Aldo fighting a UFC champion, the 4th pound-for-pound, is one thing, but the counter proposal was not interesting.”
“It’s not that Florian is not tough or anything. I think he’s an excellent athlete, but he’s coming from a loss and unfortunately for him he has never been a UFC champion and today is not in the top 10 pound-for-pound. I was the one who said no, nobody else did. Jose Aldo wanted to fight, but I didn’t let him do it because this fight wouldn’t bring any advantage at all for us, regardless of if Florian is a great fighter or not.”
“If they offered us Sean Sherk in a situation like that, I’d have probably accepted it. He was a guy coming from a win and a former UFC champion. We didn’t deny the Florian fight for fear or anything; it was just not worth it. Aldo is a very young kid and will move up to LW naturally.”
— Jose Aldo’s coach, Andre Pederneiras talks to Tatame.com (translated by V@le-Tudo)