Andre Pederneiras: Conor McGregor isn’t confident for Jose Aldo rematch

At the end of 2015, Conor McGregor stepped into the Octagon for what many believed to be the toughest test of his mixed martial arts career. Opposite McGregor was undisputed UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo, who had yet to taste defeat inside the Octagon as he reigned as the 145 pound kingpin. McGregor made short work of Aldo, knocking him out in just 13 seconds with a beautiful counter left.

This past weekend, McGregor picked up a majority decision win over Nate Diaz, avenging his UFC 196 loss to Diaz earlier this year. With UFC President Dana White adamant that McGregor will either return to featherweight, or vacate his belt, Nova Uniao head coach Andre Pederneiras believes McGregor isn’t confident enough to have a rematch with Aldo.

He spoke to MMAFighting:

“For sure, for sure, I prayed for him to win,” he told Ariel Helwani. “Now he either goes back to his division and make a match for Aldo…I don’t understand, because one more time he wanted to fight Nate, but not give Aldo an opportunity for another fight. I cannot understand him. Now he says maybe he goes to 155. No, he need to go down and drop his weight down to 145 and give a match to Aldo. He deserves that.”

“First of all, I will always believe in Dana,” Pederneiras said. “If Dana says it, he needs to go. I don’t think he’s confident to fight Aldo again. He knows that one punch don’t say anything to anybody, if I am better or the other guy’s better.”

Do you think McGregor will go back down to 145 and have a title unification fight with Aldo, or vacate the belt? Give us your predictions below PENN Nation!