Jose Aldo has set the cat amongst the pigeons by claiming that he had spies in his opponent Frankie Edgar’s camp prior to UFC 200.
During a media day in his native Brazil, the former featherweight champion explained that inside information led to him changing up the way he fought against ‘The Answer’ on July 9th in Las Vegas.
“If I kicked, he’d take me down,” Aldo told the media assembled at the Nova Uniao gym yesterday. “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 [using] my left hand, because he would counter on that.”
Somewhat surprised by his claim, journalists asked him to confirm that he was serious, and Aldo did not hesitate to do so.
“Of course I had [spies]. Otherwise, why wouldn’t I kick? That’s my instinct. 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.”
In fact, Aldo claims this has been common practice for some time.
“Thank God it always happens, man. 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.”
If that’s true then he’s just put these so-called “spies” in a very uncomfortable position, although you have to wonder if this may partly just be a case of Aldo playing mind-games to unsettle his future opponents.
