The heat has really been turned up for the UFC 212 pay-per-view main event…
After falling to Conor McGregor at UFC 194, some fans felt that Jose Aldo’s reign as champion was done for good. Getting knocked out in 13 seconds was bad enough, but the onslaught of verbal abuse from McGregor must have had a big impact too.
Now that ‘The Notorious’ has left featherweight, Aldo’s interim title he won at UFC 200 has been promoted to the full champion. Then, oddly, the UFC made Max Holloway vs. Anthony Pettis for the interim belt.
And so we find ourselves 24 hours out from the unification bout.
Aldo Discusses Death Chants From Fans
As is quite often the case for foreign fighters competing in Brazil, Max Holloway got some serious grief from the home fans. ‘You’re going to die’ was repeated by the Brazilian crowds at the open workouts.
‘Blessed’ says he feeds off that vibe, but Aldo says that’s simply not true. Check out what ‘Scarface’ told Combate, via BloodyElbow.com:
‘He Will Sh*t His Pants’
“The f–k he will feed off their energy. He’s going to f—king shit himself. He never fought with that kind of pressure before, man. You can see in his eyes how nervous he gets when the crowd starts to put the pressure on him. It’s all baloney. He doesn’t want to let it show.
“I’ve fought millions of guys and I never felt the need to respond to the crowd or give them any gestures. When a person wants to show all that, they’re so nervous, you don’t even know how much. He’s afraid. He always fought in the USA, where there’s no booing or anything. It’s an important fight in a new place. He’s nervous, anxious.”
“I’ll go forward all the time, go after the victory,” Aldo said. “If it stays standing I’ll knock him out, connect several blows. But I’ve been training jiu-jitsu a lot, and if I have the chance on the ground I’ll catch him, for sure.”
“He never went through this,” Also said. “He never experienced a fight like this, so important. Everything is new to him. You can see his attitude is different face to face. He’s nervous, you can see. He’s trying to show something he’s not.”
UFC 212 Fight Card & Start Times
The Main Card | 10:00 p.m. ET / 7:00 p.m. PT on Pay-Per-View
Jose Aldo vs. Max Holloway Featherweight title fight
Claudia Gadelha vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz
Vitor Belfort vs. Nate Marquardt
Paulo Borrachinha vs. Oluwale Bamgbose
Erick Silva vs. Yancy Medeiros
The Prelims | 8:00 p.m. ET / 5:00 p.m. PT on Fox Sports 1
Marlon Moraes vs. Raphael Assuncao
Antonio Carlos Junior vs. Eric Spicely
Johnny Eduardo vs. Matthew Lopez
Iuri Alcantara vs. Brian Kelleher
The Fight Pass Prelims | 6:30 p.m. ET / 3:30 p.m. PT on UFC Fight Pass
Viviane Pereira vs. Jamie Moyle
Luan Chagas vs. Jim Wallhead
Marco Beltran vs. Deiveson Figueiredo
