Jose Aldo: I had a spy in Frankie Edgar's training room during UFC 200 fight week
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Jose Aldo returned in grand fashion at UFC 200, defeating Frankie Edgar via unanimous decision to claim the interim featherweight championship.
Back in Brazil, the Nova Uniao fighter has revealed that he had a spy during fight week.
The UFC usually separates the fighters at the hotel in two different groups, and Aldo says that he looked at the list of athletes training at the second room to see who could give him information about Edgar’s training routine and strategy. According to the interim champion, that’s why he didn’t throw many kicks during the 25-minute fight.
"If I kicked, he’d take me down," Aldo said during a media day at Nova Uniao on Wednesday. "We had a few spies from the other side, people that were training close to him the entire week, and they always came and talked to us. So I had to stop kicking and my left hand, because he would counter on that."
Asked one more time if he really had a spy in Las Vegas, Aldo doubled down.
"Of course I had. Otherwise, why wouldn’t I kick? That’s my instinct," Aldo said. "So we always have a spy. We send someone to be a part of that training [room] and then they give us information. We get that information and know what they are training."
Aldo wouldn’t reveal the name of the person gave him the information before July 9, but guaranteed that it’s not the first time he was given details of his opponent’s routine days before a UFC fight.
"Thank God it always happens, man," Aldo said. "We always have Brazilians in the other corners. When I go train in the first day, I also see the list of cornerman. And, if there’s a Brazilian, we go after him and ask him to take a look, because that helps a lot."